[1]nothing that comes from the desert expresses its extremes better than the unhappy growth of the
tree yuccas. tormented, thin forests of it stalk drearily in the high mesas, particularly in that
triangular slip that fans out eastward from the meeting of the sierras and coastwise hills. the
yucca bristles with bayonet-pointed leaves, dull green, growing shaggy with age like an old
[5] man's tangled gray beard, tipped with panicles of foul, greenish blooms. after its death, which is
slow, the ghostly hollow network of its woody skeleton, with hardly power to rot, makes even
the moonlight fearful. but it isn't always this way. before the yucca has come to flower, while
yet its bloom is a luxurious, creamy, cone-shaped bud of the size of a small cabbage, full of
sugary sap, the indians twist it deftly out of its fence of daggers and roast the prize for their
[10] own delectation.

why does the author use the words "ghostly hollow" and "woody skeleton" to describe the yucca tree (line 6)?

to communicate the plant's extraordinary beauty
to emphasize the danger of the plant's leaves
to highlight the plant's frightening appearance
to reveal the author's preoccupation with death

98 points!

assignment

analyzing characters

respond to the following questions in one paragraph for each. use specific examples from the text to support your responses.

1. there is a set of twins on the island named sam and eric. however, when describing them, golding regularly refers to them as samneric. how does this way of describing the twins relate to their behavior and the way that readers understand their characters? what examples of their behavior readers see that samneric is really the appropriate way to refer to them?

2. as the boys set out to search for the beast, ralph allows jack to lead the way, and he sinks to the back of the pack, " to have escaped responsibility for a time." what does this moment lead you to infer about ralph and about his feelings about being the group’s leader? what does this moment foreshadow?

3. while part of the party searching for the beast, simon realizes that the notion of the beast that the other boys have does not make sense. a beast sitting atop a mountain with claws, a beast who did not leave tracks, could have easily caught the twins. simon has a different picture of the beast: "there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick." how does this picture relate to the beast that samneric saw? how does it relate to what simon said earlier about the beast being "only us"?

no plagarism

me

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