Exam Questions

1. What thematic elements are underlying in the short story “The Boat”?

There are several underlying thematic elements in the story, but I think the strongest and most obvious theme of the story is the growth of a boy to a man. All boys go through the struggles of puberty when they start becoming a young man, but The Boat demonstrates how the hardest part about growing up is the kind of decisions you have to start making. Commonly, high school is seen as the growing stage for a boy to a man or a girl to a woman. This is when they have to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives, which is a very stressful thing to have on one's mind all the time. This is the kind of decision that the boy in The Boat has to face. Should he pursue his dream of getting an education, or should he stay with his father and become a fisherman by his side? Making these kind of decisions can change a person. The boy has to look at it with maturity. He knows what he wants, but he feels selfish. The fact that he sacrifices his own education to stay and work with his family because he loves his father shows that he has grown and matured. The most obvious change in maturity is between the two times he decides to drop out of school. The first time, he dropped out because he thought he needed to help the family make money because his father was ill. He did not WANT to be a fisherman, but he would do it anyways because he felt it had to be done. His father objected to this because he did not want him to live the rest of his life doing something he doesn't enjoy - just like him. The second time, he dropped out of school because he WANTED to. He wanted to spend time with his father and become close to him. He had a real reason to be a fisherman, therefore his father did not object to it. The boy grew up immensely between the first and second time he dropped out of school.

As children, terrible things are hidden from us so that we can "keep our innocence". For example, children are not allowed to watch horror movies because it is wrong for them to see a human body torn apart, to watch someone die, or to know what sex is. In our society, these are things that are reserved for adulthood. Often, the children that are the most sheltered are the children who take the hardest hit when they finally learn all of these horrible things. These sort of things change people, positively and negatively. Many children that have experienced the loss of their parents are changed forever. They have experienced tragedy, they welcome it. Things like horror movies are not as scary for them compared to their innocent peers. Bad things that happen do not surprise them, because they have matured earlier than other kids because they have learned about the horrible things of the world. This is what Alistair Macleod often writes about - the initiation of a child or young man into the knowledge of tragedy. This is one of the themes in The Boat. The boy was with his father for the last few seconds before he disappeared forever. He knew exactly what had happened to him when he turned around and saw that he wasn't there. Most people go into shock and do not accept the fact that their loved one is gone, they simply will not believe it. The boy knew right away what had happened and accepted reality for what it was. This shows great maturity. Getting up early every morning without his father's help, working all summer, and being on the boat with his father had changed him from a boy to a man.

2. Create a character sketch of one of the main characters from the play “Macbeth”.

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth is the type of person who will manipulate someone else into getting her what she wants instead of getting it herself. Instead of killing the King herself and dealing with the guilt, she manipulates Macbeth into killing the King for her. This way, she can be a Queen and not have to live with the guilt of killing a person. This is how Lady Macbeth gets what she wants; manipulation. An example of how she manipulates Macbeth is by attacking his manhood. She says that if he doesn't go through with the plan to kill the King, he will "live a coward in thine own esteem"(1.7.2), meaning that he will feel weak and cowardly for the rest of his life. Macbeth does not want his wife to think he is not a man, so he falls under the pressure and commits the crime, and Lady Macbeth gets what she wants through manipulation. When Lady Macbeth is trying to make sure nobody finds out that Macbeth was the murderer, she continues to manipulate him. Macbeth has an outburst at dinner in the presence of several Lords, because he sees the ghost of Banquo. After Lady Macbeth insures the lords that her husband is fine, she takes him aside and asks him "are you a man?"(3.4.4), once again questioning his manhood. She does this so that Macbeth will calm down because that is the manly thing to do. The only reason she wants him to calm down is because she is afraid that he will reveal their secret.

Lady Macbeth is also very ambitious. She is the one who constantly pushes Macbeth to kill the King and take the throne. As soon as she finds out about the prophecies, her mind is set on making her husband King. When Macbeth begins to second guess himself and attempt to back out of the plan, Lady Macbeth persuades him into doing it. Once she gets an idea in her head, it is stuck there, she does not back out of a plan. She is determined to make sure that she gets what she wants. Instead of being happy for her husband for becoming the Thane of Cawdor, she immediately discards this feat and begins planning something bigger. Thane of Cawdor is not good enough, her husband must keep moving up in the ranks. This is where Lady Macbeth shows her ambition, along with her greed. If she had been happy with her husband becoming Thane of Cawdor but going no further, there would have been no problem. They may have lived "happily ever after". Instead, she gets greedy, and wants her husband to go after the throne.

Not only is Lady Macbeth unsatisfied with her husband's role, she is unsatisfied with herself. She doesn't even want to be a woman, she wants to be a man so that she can be strong and powerful. She has a mind full of evil ideas, but she is not able to put any of her ideas into action. She thinks that if she was a man she could, and that's why she says "Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here"(1.5.2). She seems to never be happy with what she is or what she has, she always wants more. This may have something to do with her self confidence. Lady Macbeth seems insecure, because she is never happy with who she is, along with who her husband is.

3. What characteristics do Macbeth and Victor Frankenstein share? How are their stories similar?

Macbeth and Victor have similar experiences in their lives. Both of them create the problem that kills them. Macbeth was living his life normally, until he decided to kill the King and take the throne. At the time, this seemed like it would be beneficial for him. For a short period of time, it was. As time went on, the murder of the King began to bring Macbeth down. He wore on his mind and made him feel weak and full of guilt. He became paranoid and somewhat mentally ill. Victor Frankenstein experiences the same problem. Through curiosity and his interest in the human body, he creates a person, which ends up being a monster. When he decides that he doesn’t like what he has created, he abandons it, and feels no responsibility for the monster. Victor does not realize that what he has done will come back to kill him, just like Macbeth. Murdering the King could be considered Macbeth’s “monster” which comes back to kill him. Victor becomes ill with guilt and a feeling of responsibility for everything bad that happens, just like Macbeth. What he has done creates so many problems that it is overwhelming for Victor. In the end, his illness kills him. If he had never created the monster, he would not have died this way. If Macbeth had never killed the King, he would not have died the way he did. Both characters are men that are at the peak of their lives, and create a problem that brings them down and kills them.

Geniuses - Pre-1800's vs. Post-2000's

Archimedes - 287 B.C - 212 B.C
Archimedes was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. He lived in the city of Syracuse, in a time where mathematics and physics were not very popular. His inventions and ideas serve as a benchmark for the advancements of technology today. He was known for building a foundation in hydro-statics, statics, and he was able to explain the principle of the lever. Many of his inventions and discoveries were used to protect the city of Syracuse. For example, it is said that Archimedes used mirrors as a weapon that produced fire. He discovered that with the use of mirrors, he could reflect and bend the rays of light coming from the sun. He was able to focus the rays of light on enemy ships attacking the city of Syracuse and burn them down. The most common story about Archimedes is that he discovered a way to determine the volume of an object that has an irregular shape. When he was asked by the King to find out if his crown had been made out of pure gold or if silver was mixed in, Archimedes began searching for a way to find the volume of the crown without melting it down. One day, when he sat down into his bath, he noticed that the water rose. This brought him to the conclusion that when an object is placed in water, the amount of water that is displaced is equal to the volume of the object. This is when the common phrase "Eureka!" was started, as Archimedes ran down the streets yelling "Eureka!" in excitement. He was able to prove that the goldsmith had put silver into the crown by using his newly discovered principle. It is said that this story may not being completely true. It is more likely that Archimedes used another one of his mathematical discoveries to determine the volume of the crown. This principle was that an object immersed in a liquid will experience a buoyant force equal to the weight of the liquid it displaces. Archimedes would have been able to compare the density of the "golden" crown to the density of solid gold by balancing the crown on one end of a scale, with a pure gold reference on the other end and than placing it in water. The difference in the density of the two objects would cause the scale to tip. Archimedes also discovered that a sphere has 2/3 of the volume of a cylinder with the same height and diameter. This was Archimedes' favourite mathematical discovery, so when he was killed, his grave had a sculpture on it of a sphere and cylinder of the same diameter and height.

Bill Gates - 1955 - Present
Bill gates is an American investor, programmer, inventor, philanthropist, and business magnate from Seattle, Washington. Gates plays a large role in the world's largest personal-computer company in the world, Microsoft. He is Microsoft's former chief executive and current chairman. When Gates was 13 years old, he took an interest in programming the General Electric computer system in BASIC, and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. This is the machine he used to write his first computer program. His first computer program was a tic-tac-toe game where users could play against the computer. Gates later went on to write a payroll program in Cool for Information Sciences, Inc. When they realized how talented Gates was, they had him write his school's computer program which was used to make the students' course schedules. With power like this, Gates was able to use the program to his benefit, by modifying the code so that he was placed in classes with mostly girls. When Gates was 17, he and his friend Paul Allen formed a venture called Traf-O-Data, which was used to make traffic counters. By 1973, at a young age of 18, Gates served as a congressional page in the US House of Representatives. When he graduated highschool, he scored 1590 out of 1600 on his SAT. He then went to post-secondary school at Harvard College. While at Harvard, Gates created an algorithm for pancake sorting to solve one of the unsolved problems in his combinatorics class. His solution was the fastest one for over thirty years. After one year of college, Gates dropped out of school because he wanted to start his own company. This is when he and his friend Paul Allen began working for MITS, and called their partnership Micro-Soft. They went on to create a Microsoft BASIC program, which was popular. Since then, he has improved his computer programs to the Microsoft Windows series, Microsoft has created multiple generations of Xboxs, cell phones, etc. Now, Bill Gates is one of the most wealthy people in the world.

Lady Macbeth - Character Sketch

Lady Macbeth is the type of person who will manipulate someone else into getting her what she wants instead of getting it herself. Instead of killing the King herself and dealing with the guilt, she manipulates Macbeth into killing the King for her. This way, she can be a Queen and not have to live with the guilt of killing a person. This is how Lady Macbeth gets what she wants; manipulation. An example of how she manipulates Macbeth is by attacking his manhood. She says that if he doesn't go through with the plan to kill the King, he will "live a coward in thine own esteem"(1.7.2), meaning that he will feel weak and cowardly for the rest of his life. Macbeth does not want his wife to think he is not a man, so he falls under the pressure and commits the crime, and Lady Macbeth gets what she wants through manipulation. When Lady Macbeth is trying to make sure nobody finds out that Macbeth was the murderer, she continues to manipulate him. Macbeth has an outburst at dinner in the presence of several Lords, because he sees the ghost of Banquo. After Lady Macbeth insures the lords that her husband is fine, she takes him aside and asks him "are you a man?"(3.4.4), once again questioning his manhood. She does this so that Macbeth will calm down because that is the manly thing to do. The only reason she wants him to calm down is because she is afraid that he will reveal their secret.

Lady Macbeth is also very ambitious. She is the one who constantly pushes Macbeth to kill the King and take the throne. As soon as she finds out about the prophecies, her mind is set on making her husband King. When Macbeth begins to second guess himself and attempt to back out of the plan, Lady Macbeth persuades him into doing it. Once she gets an idea in her head, it is stuck there, she does not back out of a plan. She is determined to make sure that she gets what she wants. Instead of being happy for her husband for becoming the Thane of Cawdor, she immediately discards this feat and begins planning something bigger. Thane of Cawdor is not good enough, her husband must keep moving up in the ranks. This is where Lady Macbeth shows her ambition, along with her greed. If she had been happy with her husband becoming Thane of Cawdor but going no further, there would have been no problem. They may have lived "happily ever after". Instead, she gets greedy, and wants her husband to go after the throne.

Not only is Lady Macbeth unsatisfied with her husband's role, she is unsatisfied with herself. She doesn't even want to be a woman, she wants to be a man so that she can be strong and powerful. She has a mind full of evil ideas, but she is not able to put any of her ideas into action. She thinks that if she was a man she could, and that's why she says "Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here"(1.5.2). She seems to never be happy with what she is or what she has, she always wants more. This may have something to do with her self confidence. Lady Macbeth seems insecure, because she is never happy with who she is, along with who her husband is.

Macbeth Soliloquys

Macbeth - Act 1 Scene 3 (Line 130-145)

Macbeth has just started to witness the intelligence of the witches. This is where he first thinks about his possible future on the throne. Since the first two things that the witches predicted have come true, he is starting to think that maybe he will become King, as he says in the very first lines of the soliloquy, “Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act, Of the imperial theme.”(130-132). Macbeth cannot decide whether or not this existent of the supernatural is a good thing or a bad thing. It can’t be bad because he has become Thane of Cawdor, but it can’t be good because “I yield to that suggestion, Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair”(138-139). Macbeth is saying that he is thinking about murdering King Duncan, a thought that is so terrible that it makes his hair stand on end and his heart pound in his chest. This shows that at this point, Macbeth does not seem capable of killing the King, as he says “function is smothered in surmise,”(144). At this point, Macbeth is almost in shock because of the horrible thoughts that are going through his head. He is standing aside from the other men and they notice that he is in a daze. Macbeth is unsure what to think at this point, but the thought of murdering King Duncan has been implanted in his head.

Lady Macbeth - Act 1 Scene 5 (Line 28-44)

Lady Macbeth realizes that her feminism is holding her back from killing the King. Her mind is filled with evil plans of murder, but she can only plan such things, she can’t take action herself. She says, “Come, you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”(30-31), as though she thinks like a man, but cannot act like a man. She wants the same evil demons that gave her the idea of murdering the King, to turn her into a man so she could go through with the murder herself. She knows she would feel remorse for doing such a thing, so she wants demons to “Make thick my blood. Stop up the access and passage to remorse”(33-34). For some reason Lady Macbeth thinks that any man can murder another man and not feel remorse. In her mind, that is manhood. However, her husband feels just as awful about the thought of killing the King as she does. She says how she wants the night to come and cover the world in darkness so that she can kill the King with nothing able to stop her. Clearly Lady Macbeth is nervous that King Duncan is coming to her Castle because she knows how terrible her plans are. She is worried, however, that being a woman will stop her from being able to commit the crime herself. This is why she decides to use Macbeth as her assassin. What she doesn’t realize is that the blood will still be on her hands, as it was her plan to kill the King, Macbeth is just the puppet.

Macbeth - Act 2 Scene 1 (Line 33-64)

Macbeth’s imagination is getting the best of him in this soliloquy. So far, the supernatural have played a large part in the play, and Macbeth is starting to believe in things that most people do not think exist. He sees an imaginary dagger that in his mind is leading him to his crime. Macbeth believes that everything is happening for a reason, so he automatically thinks that because he sees a floating dagger, he has to go through with his crime. In this soliloquy he is contemplating his decision for the very last time. When Macbeth says, “I go, and it is done. The bell invites me.”(62), he is saying that the deed is as good as done, suggesting that at this point he has no choice. When he hears a bell, he thinks it is summoning him to commit his crime. Clearly this bell had nothing to do with the murder, since nobody else knew of Macbeth’s plan, but Macbeth’s confused mind infers that it is like a green light, and it is time to go through with the murder. It is obvious that Macbeth is in a very confused and unbalanced state of mind, along with the fact that he may have a fever. He can’t decide if the dagger is real or not, and shows his troubled mind in saying “A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”(38-39). I think Macbeth may also feel that at this point if he does not go through with the murder, Lady Macbeth will be proven right about his lack of manhood. Now Macbeth has something to prove, and Lady Macbeth has set it up so that killing the King is the only way he can prove he is a real man.

Macbeth - Act 3 Scene 1 (Line 50-74)

This soliloquy is full of irony and hypocrisy. Even though Macbeth has killed King Duncan and taken the throne himself, he feels threatened by Banquo. He thinks that his life on the throne will be short-lived, because Banquo will do everything he can to make sure one of his sons gets the throne for himself, and quickly. The ironic part is that Macbeth starts describing Banquo’s characteristics, listing all the reasons he should be afraid of him, and part of it is that he knows Banquo very well and knows how capable he is of taking the throne. This ironic because Macbeth has taken King Duncan’s original position. Macbeth was one of Duncan’s favourited men, he knew he was intelligent and powerful, but there was no way he could see Macbeth coming to murder him. Now that Macbeth has betrayed Duncan, a man he was close to, he feels as though Banquo could do the same thing. If Macbeth had not committed his crime, he would have never feared Banquo. He knows that Banquo is just like him, and if Macbeth would commit treason for the throne, Banquo would do the same. This leads Macbeth to the conclusion that Banquo and his son must be killed to protect his own reign. So far, everything that the witches predicted has come true, so that leads Macbeth to believing that all of their predictions will come true, one of them being that Macbeth will not have a line of sons that take the throne, but Banquo will. This enrages Macbeth because now he feels like he has gone through all this terror and felt the guilt of killing King Duncan just to ensure that Banquo’s sons sit on the throne, which is what he means when he says “If ’t be so, For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind”, which makes Banquo a target for Macbeth.

Reach Out and Touch Poetry Analysis

Reach Out and Touch - Maxine Tynes

-the title "Reach Out and Touch" suggests an important action that may take place in the poem
-the narrator describes her hair as "the curly electric" suggesting frizzy and curly hair, common in black women
-she also describes her skin as "brown skin magic of my neck", possibly meaning that it seems magical to the children that her skin is brown, so maybe they have never seen a black person before
-the fact that the child is dipping his/her fingers in the "brown skin magic of my neck to see if it comes off" shows that the child is expecting the brown skin to be a result of dirt and that it should come off and the skin should be white underneath
-the mother of the curious child slaps his/her hands away and "hush-up of your questions" suggests that the mother is discouraging the child's curiosity in the black woman and does not want the child to learn about her or get involved with her
-the child is "wondering out loud why it doesn't come off." which is a clear indicator that the child is curious about why the woman's skin is brown
-when the narrator says "I turn and smile for you, but you're already lost/in the silence and the fear that motherlove wraps you in." she is saying that she tried to show the child that she is friendly and not to be feared, but it is too late because the mother has already sheltered the child from the woman and made him/her feel scared of the woman
-the last four lines of the poem are the narrator describing how she could have made the child feel comfortable with her, which in turn would have taught the child that black people are not to be feared
-because the child is so young, if the woman had "snugged up my big warm self up close" the child would feel more comfortable, because you can't just talk a young child into feeling comfortable with you when they can't understand what you're saying

Background Research
After reading the poem I felt it was necessary to research the author to find out if there is a connection between herself and the theme of the poem. The poem seems to be written about anti-racism, because she is trying to make a curious young white child more comfortable with black people. It turns out the author of the poem is a black woman who takes pride in her race. She liked to write poetry about social issues such as the racism experienced by earlier generations of black women, famine in Africa and the prostitutes working at night in Halifax. This makes it evident that the main theme that the author is trying to get across in this poem is racism.

The Boat

The Plan

1. Who are the protagonist and antagonist? What is the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist?

2. What is the setting - where and when does it take place? Why is it in this setting? What does this setting represent?

3. Could there be a connection between the events in the story and the events in the author’s life? If so, what connection could there be? Is there a connection between the setting in the story and the author?

4. Is there a character shift seen in the story? If so, which characters changed? How did they change?

5. Is the title symbolic? If so, what does it stand for? What relation does it have to the story?

6. If imagery is used, is it used effectively? Is it used for a purpose?

7. What struggle or tough decision does the main character face?

8. What perspective is the story told from? How does this perspective have an affect on how we read the story?

9. What thematic elements are underlying in the story?

10. Create a character sketch of each of the main characters. Explain why you see each character as having those characteristics.

11. Were similes used in the story? If so, give examples. Were they used effectively?

12. Were there metaphors used in the story? If so, give examples. Also, explain what the meaning of the metaphors are.

Pre-Reading

Alistair MacLeod

-born in North Battleford Saskatchewan july 20 1936

-when MacLeod was ten his family moved to a farm in Dunvegan, Inverness County on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island

-in the 1930 there was a fishing depression which could have effect on the fathers job in the short story

-before he was born his dad got lead poisoning, lost a lung, his bones calcified and was very weakened

-had a job as a fisherman, minor, and has degrees from multiple universities

-he has six kids

-several of his novels and short story involve initiation of a child or young man into the

knowledge of tragedy and the vanity of human aspirations

-the boat is his first short story he published

Questions Answered

1. In my opinion, in The Boat, the protagonist and antagonist are fighting within one person - they are one person, just at different stages of life. I see the protagonist to be the narrator as a young boy. He is still learning things about life and viewing it from a state of innocence. The way he is seeing things is different than it will be when he grows up. The antagonist is simply that - growing up. He is fighting an internal conflict with his own maturity. As he grows up he learns things about people that he never understood as a young boy - why they act the way they do, who they really are inside. He begins to learn things about himself, and he has to decide who he wants to be and what he wants to do with his life. He starts to see his father for who he really is, a man struggling to hold on to life and losing his grip on reasons to be alive. The young boy was facing a difficult conflict. His father had always wanted the best for him, he did not want him to drop out of school, and it seems he was happy with all of his children leaving their hometown and going off to school. It seems he may have learned about the growing world outside of their small fishing town. But the boy could not see his father come to such a selfless end of life. He wanted to do something in return for his father, he wanted him to die happy and with his son by his side, and his wife proud of him for having one of his children stay to work the traditional life that she thought was right. As a young boy, it was hard for him to decide what was the right thing to do. He was at a stage in life where everything becomes very confusing and decisions become more and more difficult all the time. I think he made the right decision by deciding to stay with his father.

2. The setting in this story is very important. Technically, it would be correct to say that the setting of the story is a small fishing town on Cape Breton Island, around the 1950's. I believe this is the time period that the story takes place because this is when Ernest Hemingway was about the same age as the boy's father. This would make sense as to how he looked just like Ernest Hemingway in the picture that the tourists took of him. Coincidentally (or maybe not), Ernest Hemingway also published a novel called "The Old Man and the Sea" in 1952, which was a story about an aging fisherman fighting a battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Also, the author moved to a small town on Cape Breton island when he was ten years old, which would have been 1946. By the time he was the same age as the boy in the story, it would have been 1951. In my opinion, there are two settings in the story. Their house in Cape Breton, and the more significant and mysterious setting; the boat. Nobody ever knows what it is actually like for the father out on the boat until the end of the story. Throughout the entire story, they simply ask "Well, how did things go in the boat today?" and what ever the father told them, was what they knew. This is what made the boat a mysterious setting with a lack of answers; what really goes on out there on the sea? How does the father really feel when he is out there? I think the setting at the end of the story is strictly the man and son on the boat. I think it is a very important setting because a connection builds between the man and son, the son learns about his father, he bonds with him, and he is forced to see him disappear forever. It is important that the father died out on the boat with his son, because it seems that his entire life would have been for nothing if it had not ended that way. He died doing what he had done his entire life, but he died with a better perspective on it, simply because his son was there with him.

3. I think it is very likely that there is a connection between the events in the story and the events in the author's life. First of all, the author moved back to his homeland of Cape Breton Island when he was ten years old, around the same age as the boy in the story. This is a clear connection between the setting in the story and the author. The author was forced to face the tragedy of his father's lead poisoning when he was a young boy. MacLeod is known to write stories with the theme of a child having to face tragedy at a young age. This may be caused by the things that happened to his father when he was a young boy. He then wrote his first short story, "The Boat", about a boy who becomes a young man and loses his father. I think this is a connection the author made to his own life. 

4. There is one main character shift in the story; the changes in the narrator. As he changes from a boy to a young man, his view on his life and the lives of others changes. As a little boy he always dreamed of finishing high school and getting an education. As he matures and grows to a young man, he feels that doing such a thing would be selfish. He starts to feel sympathy for his father, and cannot leave him. When he decides to stay with his father, his character has changed dramatically. He is finally doing things with a purpose. As a child, it is common to just do what you like and not understand how you are affecting others. He decides to stay with his father because making his parents happy brings just as much joy to him as the thought of getting an education. There also seems to be a character shift within the father. Throughout the story he seems to be a mysterious, lonely man. He is always by himself in his room, indulged in his books, or out on the boat alone with his brother in law. He doesn't seem to actually like being a fisherman, and comes off as a somewhat depressed man, almost as if he feels like a failure because he became a fisherman instead of getting an education. This would explain why he wants his children to all leave Cape Breton Island and get an education. When the son decides to stay with him, he is no longer alone. His wife is happy with him because he has retained his only son, and he is able to continue fishing, no longer ill. It seems he comes out of his depression, and dies a happy man.

5. The title "The Boat" is very symbolic. The narrator talks about how often people refer to the boat. To the boy, it seemed like the boat was just as important to the family as their own lives were. The title symbolizes a very important time in the boy's life. It was a time of growing up, finding himself, getting to know his father, and facing tragedy. The titles has a large relation to the story because the entire story is based off of the boat. It seems as though the boat is an object portrayed as a place. When you go to the boat, things happen that people will never understand. The boat takes you out onto the sea where you are all alone. Events could take place out on the boat that the family at home could never know about. I think the title symbolizes the growing up of the boy, as this seems to be what the story is all about.

6. Imagery is used constantly throughout the story. It is used for a strong purpose, and it is used very effectively. The purpose is to give the reader an idea of how the boy saw things. The author often refers to the smell of the sea, the salt and the cigarettes, the sound of his father singing, and the sound of the boat. He constantly describes things he could sense, trying to give the reader a deep perspective on the setting and the events that take place. This is very effective because this kind of detail makes the reader fall deeper and deeper into the story until they feel like they are actually there, seeing, smelling, and hearing things just as the boy is. This is important because when the reader starts feeling things the same way the main character does, it is easier for them to understand the story. When the boy loses his father in the end, I could feel the same sense of emptiness the boy felt when he turned around to see that his father had disappeared forever.

7. The tough decision that the main character faces is choosing between his dream of getting an education, or staying in Cape Breton with his father as a fisherman. Even though he knows his father wants him to get an education, he knows that his father also wants him to do what makes him happy. When his father says he should not have dropped out of school, he does not TELL him to go back to school, he ASKS him. This is an important part of the story because this is where the boy learns that his father just wants the best for him. If he is going to stay and be a fisherman, his father wants him to do it because he wants to, not because he has to. He does not want the son to feel that he has to drop out of school and become a fisherman to save his family, because he does not want his son to make the same mistake he did. The boy is forced to find himself, and decide whether or not he wants to become a fisherman for the right reasons. He decides that he wants to fish because he wants to stay with his father, not because he has to, so his father does not object to it. This would have been a tough decision for him to face as a boy because it will change his life forever.

8. The story is told from the perspective of a boy who becomes a young man over the course of the story. This has a dramatic effect on how we read the story because at the beginning of the story, the boy sees everything in the perspective of an innocent young child. There are things that he does not understand that an older reader would understand. Since we are seeing things from the perspective of the boy, who does not understand much himself, we do not necessarily see things the way they really are. As the boy becomes a young man, our perspective on things change just as his perspective on things change. He starts to see things how they really are, he understands how his father really feels about his lifestyle, and he understands what the boat really is. The perspective is also different at the beginning of the story when he is a man, because he looks back on his life and sees things differently, allowing the reader to see things the same way.

9. There are several underlying thematic elements in the story, but I think the strongest and most obvious theme of the story is the growth of a boy to a man. All boys go through the struggles of puberty when they start becoming a young man, but The Boat demonstrates how the hardest part about growing up is the kind of decisions you have to start making. Commonly, high school is seen as the growing stage for a boy to a man or a girl to a woman. This is when they have to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives, which is a very stressful thing to have on one's mind all the time. This is the kind of decision that the boy in The Boat has to face. Should he pursue his dream of getting an education, or should he stay with his father and become a fisherman by his side? Making these kind of decisions can change a person. The boy has to look at it with maturity. He knows what he wants, but he feels selfish. The fact that he sacrifices his own education to stay and work with his family because he loves his father shows that he has grown and matured. The most obvious change in maturity is between the two times he decides to drop out of school. The first time, he dropped out because he thought he needed to help the family make money because his father was ill. He did not WANT to be a fisherman, but he would do it anyways because he felt it had to be done. His father objected to this because he did not want him to live the rest of his life doing something he doesn't enjoy - just like him. The second time, he dropped out of school because he WANTED to. He wanted to spend time with his father and become close to him. He had a real reason to be a fisherman, therefore his father did not object to it. The boy grew up immensely between the first and second time he dropped out of school.
As children, terrible things are hidden from us so that we can "keep our innocence". For example, children are not allowed to watch horror movies because it is wrong for them to see a human body torn apart, to watch someone die, or to know what sex is. In our society, these are things that are reserved for adulthood. Often, the children that are the most sheltered are the children who take the hardest hit when they finally learn all of these horrible things. These sort of things change people, positively and negatively. Many children that have experienced the loss of their parents are changed forever. They have experienced tragedy, they welcome it. Things like horror movies are not as scary for them compared to their innocent peers. Bad things that happen do not surprise them, because they have matured earlier than other kids because they have learned about the horrible things of the world. This is what Alistair Macleod often writes about - the initiation of a child or young man into the knowledge of tragedy. This is one of the themes in The Boat. The boy was with his father for the last few seconds before he disappeared forever. He knew exactly what had happened to him when he turned around and saw that he wasn't there. Most people go into shock and do not accept the fact that their loved one is gone, they simply will not believe it. The boy knew right away what had happened and accepted reality for what it was. This shows great maturity. Getting up early every morning without his father's help, working all summer, and being on the boat with his father had changed him from a boy to a man.

10. Mother
Traditional - she believes in the old fashioned ways of working all day for what you have. The woman does all the cooking and cleaning, and the man goes out during the day and works so that they can put food on the table and clothes on their backs. She does not believe in education and thinks going to school is a waste of time.
Stubborn - she will not change her ways. Some traditional people can be talked into understanding how the world has changed and that education is the way now. This woman can not be reasoned with, she has always lived a certain way and refuses to change. When her husband allows the girls to go work in a restaurant, she is so stubborn that she blames her husband and says that he is wrong and hopes he's happy when the girls come home knocked up.
Selfish - she does not want the best for her children, she wants her children to do things the way she does things. The father wants the children to get an education because he knows it is best for them and will make them happy, whereas the mother wants the children to stay at home and work because that would make her happy.

Father
Intelligent - it is obvious that the father was not meant to be a fisherman. His room is filled with books and he encourages his children to get an education. He is smart enough to realize that the old traditional ways will no longer provide people with a good quality of life. If he could go back and start over, I am sure that he would get an education rather than become a fisherman.
Selfless - this man has worked his entire life doing something he does not enjoy because he knows it is what he has to do to feed his family. It is clear that he is not happy being a fisherman, but he does it for his family's well-being. He doesn't want his children to fallow in his footsteps like the stereotypical father in the 1950's, he wants them to do what makes them happy. He does not tell his son to go back to school, he emphasizes the fact that he is just asking. This shows how much he cares for the happiness of his family over his own happiness.
Mysterious - the father leaves many unanswered questions of himself. He seems like a many of many mysteries, full of stories that have never been told. He seems to have an unexplained reason for everything he does. He sees the world differently than everyone else, but he does not brag about it or condescend. He prefers to spend his time alone in his room reading books and smoking. The children are always so curious as to what their father finds so interesting in these books he is always reading, and why he spends so much time alone. They seem to always go into his room just to figure out what is going on.

Young Boy
Confused - the boy is at a point in his life where he doesn't really know where his life is going. He isn't sure what the right thing to do is yet, and can't decide if he should get an education or stay and work with his father. He does not even understand why he does the things he does. He drops out of school to help get the boat ready, almost as if he needs to prove to his parents that he's a grown up, but as soon as he is confronted by his father about it, he goes back to school. This shows that he did not feel very strongly about dropping out of school because he did not even argue with his father about it, he just went back to school. The boy doesn't seem to know what he really wants.
Caring - the boy shows many times in the story that he has a huge soft spot for his father. He refuses to leave his father alone with his mother, to be forever considered a failure in her eyes for not retaining any of his children. He feels as though his father is deteriorating and his departure will only result in and end of his father. He decides that by staying with his father he can make him happy and make his mother happy with the man. He sacrifices his own education to save his father, and his mother tells him "You have given added years to his life". The boy has given his father a reason to keep going, and I think this satisfies him more than getting an education ever would because he loves his father so much.
Ignorant - the boy's ignorance is typical of a child. He sees everything from the perspective of a child, so obviously he is not going to understand the real meaning behind everything. His innocence protects him from understanding how his father really feels about his lifestyle. His ignorance prevents him from seeing the fact that his father is actually a very lonely, depressed man. As he grows up, this does change. His ignorance begins to fade, and he starts seeing things how they really are. For example, when he says "And I saw then, that summer, many things that I had seen all my life as if for the first time" he is stating that his ignorant perspective is gone and he finally sees the truth behind his father.

11. Although there are not many, there are a few similes used in The Boat. An example of a great simile used is when the boy describes his father's bedroom by saying "Still the room remained, like a rock of opposition
in the sparkling waters of a clear deep harbour". This simile is very effective in describing how visibly different his father's bedroom is from the rest of the house. It easily shows how the rest of the house is so clean like the sparkling waters of a clear deep harbour, but his father's room is like a rock of opposition, meaning it is dirty and the complete opposite of sparkling water, or a clean house.

12. Once again, there are not many metaphors used in The Boat, but the ones that are used are very effective in deeply describing an image. When the author wants to describe the cigarettes in the ashtray beside the man's bed, he says "At such times only the grey corpses on the overflowing ashtray beside my bed bear witness to the extinction of the latest spark and silently await the crushing out of the most recent of their fellows." Clearly, there are not grey corpses beside his bed. He is referring to the remains of his cigarettes, the ashes and the burnt out cigarette butts that are in his ashtray. He describes them as being able to see the ending of a spark and the crushing of their fellow cigarettes. Clearly, cigarettes can not see. He is trying to get the point across that he is alone in his room, smoking many cigarettes just like his father. The fact that the ashes of cigarettes are the only things that witness the end of the next cigarette is meant to emphasize his loneliness. This is a very effective metaphor.

$100 Billion Offer

As a sixteen year old student, I do not see the need for $100 Billion. I am not going to lie to you and make up a list of good things I would do with the money to convince you that I am worthy of having $100 Billion. The honest truth is that I would not be able to come up with a way to spend that much money, and since I am just an average Canadian teenager, I would spend as much of it as possible on pointless things like video games, workout equipment and supplements, and so on. 

In my opinion, no ONE person should be worthy of $100 Billion. Money was created as a currency so that people had a way of buying the things they NEEDED from each other. Now, money has become an iconic object that people have an overwhelming greed for. There are not many people in the world that would only take part of the $100 Billion so that they have enough money to buy the things they need to survive. Most people, especially those in first world countries, would gladly take the $100 Billion and spend it carelessly on all the things they WANT. If they wouldn't face so much criticism, most people would not feel guilty at all about keeping all $100 Billion themselves and not helping those in need.

Personally, I do not need or want $100 Billion. Yes, it would be nice to receive enough money to pay off my parents' debts so that they could have a second chance to live their lives without the constant stress of debt, but I do not want $100 Billion. If I were to receive all that money, it would ruin who I am. I would have no reason to ever work again, I would have no sense of accomplishment when I make money, and like they say, money can not buy happiness. I totally agree with that statement, and therefore I would not want my life to revolve around money. I want to work for what I have, just like a have my whole life, because then there is a a much larger appreciation for the things I have. I worked over 330 hours last summer so that I had enough money to buy a vehicle once I get my license. When I do get that vehicle, it will mean the world to me because of how hard I worked for it. With $100 Billion, I could have any vehicle in the world that I want, and it would be of no significance besides how "cool" it is.

What would I do with $100 Billion? Honestly, I would do something extremely dramatic that would shock the world. Some sort of event that would show people that money is not the only thing in life. If the destruction of money wasn't illegal, I would burn all $100 Billion on live T.V. People would be shocked, but I would tell them that there are more important things in life besides money, and that I would feel overwhelming guilt by keeping $100 Billion that I have not earned. Yes, it is hard to believe that I would do that with access to that much money, but I know I could do it because I am perfectly content with continuing to live my life the way it is, working for a living, and living the life I deserve because I have worked for it. Taking on all that money when I have done nothing to deserve it would cause me to live consumed by guilt, so I would be better off without it.

Introduction To Me

If it is not obvious enough already, my name is Cody Millian. I am an academic student, athlete, musician, and a cook. In school I spend most of my time being annoyed with the fact that I have to be there. Fortunately, this semester I have English, which is my favourite subject in school. English is one of the very few classes I actually enjoy. In the past I have gotten good marks in English, but I know it is going to be much harder to do so in ENG3U. 

My hobbies consist of many sports and activities. I mainly play volleyball, baseball, and basketball. I work out at East End gym in Goderich every day, and have done so for 2 years now. I have just started boxing four days a week with the Lakeview Boxing Club underneath the East End gym. In the summer, when I'm not playing baseball, I ride my dirt bikes very often. Dirt biking is another one of my favourite hobbies. I am also very interested in music, so I have started learning to play the guitar. 

Besides English, I have a large interest in Biology and Law - two very different things, I know. These are the two fields of work I am most interested in for my future. I have narrowed my interests down to these two, but haven't been able to decide what exactly I want to do with my life. I will always workout and have a planned diet, because I have dedicated myself to my health, but I can't decide which career I want to pursue. 

I live on a farm near Carlow, where we have around 300 sheep. Our home farm is 280 acres, but we farm nearly 1800 acres across Colborne and Ashfield Township. Farming provides some work for me, but not enough to provide me with a consistent cash flow. The solution to this was to get a job outside of the farm. I have worked for the Goderich Grill and Bar since October 16th, 2011 (yes, for some odd reason I remember that). I work there as a line cook, making minimum wage, but mainly just learning how to be a good cook. Someday when I'm living on my own, all that cooking might pay off. 

That's just a little bit of information about me, hopefully I am no longer a stranger.