Family Tree

After reading the first two chapters we put together a little family tree.
(Click on the image for a better view)

Get Reading

We will read the first couple of chapters of Surviving the Applewhites on Tuesday. Many characters are introduced so we will be making a 'Applewhite Family Tree'.

A Day No Pigs Would Die Archive

Characters
Robert Peck: Main Character, young boy
Pinky: Robert's pig from Mr. Tanner.
Haven Peck: Robert's father
Lucy Peck: Robert's mother
Carrie: Robert's Aunt
Benjamin Tanner: Neighbor
Aunt Mattie: family friend (not aunt), former english teacher
Edward Thatcher: kid that teased Robert

Phrases
(77) you look like a potato dug up on a rainy day
(74) I can't undo what's already ben did.
(70) your husband's kin=husbands relatives
(68) The sky's a good place to look, and I got a notions it's a good place to go.
(66) I'd give uppie for breakfast if I could of growed like she growed.
(64) didn't mean spit to to=meant nothing
(62) dont cotton to=do not like
(57) 'didn't have brains enough to dump sand out a boot.'
(53) 'because it sure gave her the vapors'=upset her
(48) 'if'n I'm not to home come chore time, Hell won't have it.'
(45) 'be there until Hell froze and got hauled to the ice house'
(44) 'Papa wasn't one to smile every year'
(42) 'didn't find it near as comely'=not as attractive
(38) 'simple as beans'
(37) 'we suffer the less for not paining with worldly wants and wishes'
(34) 'proud as pie'
(33) 'falsing a witness'=lying
(29) 'or I'd got skinned'=punished
(24) 'nervous as a longtail cat in a room full of rocking chairs'
(23) 'and in a Shaker household, there wasn't anything as evil as a frill.'
(21) 'it's not the Shaker way to take frills for being neighborly'
(20) 'clean as clergy'=very clean
(18) 'ready as rain'=very ready
(17) 'smell like Sunday morning'= smell clean/good
(14) 'disremember'= don't remember
(14) 'I don't cotton to'= don't want to
(13) 'I ought to lick you proper'= punish/beat
(13) 'I'm preferenced to'=I'd rather, prefer
(12) 'burdended me'= carried me
(11) 'clean as a cats mouth' = very clean
(11) 'holler out all the dirt'= bleed clean
(10) 'worse then proper' = badly
(10) 'We're beholding to you' = We owe you
(8) 'wrong as sin on Sunday' = very wrong
(6) 'hanging on to wait christmas'= held tightly
(5) 'got a purchase on' = got a hold of

Favorite Phrase
A good teacher does not lose her temper, no matter how stupid her pupils are. (Aunt Mattie, p58)

(related)"How was the first (english) lesson (with Robert)?""Next time, " said Aunty Matty,"I'll teach the pig."

Unfamiliar Words
blundersome=difficult/heavy
brood sow=used for breeding, not eating
capstan=leveraged axle
Goiter=Thyroid growth
Lammis (Table)=?
mirthful=funny
misdo=mistake
Muslin=Cotton cloth
Pomade=Hair 'grease'
remedy=bad medcine
Spruce Gum
Succotash=Bean Stew
Sumac Whistle
tomfool=crazy
tutor=tooter :)

Pinky's Fate

We are reading the last two Chapters of “A Day No Pigs Would Die” today. Ben and I are convinced that Haven Peck will not survive until the end of the book. We are less certain about Pinky. Before reading, I would like Ben to contemplate three different endings:

• The Hollywood ‘Feel Good’ ending
• The ‘Cold Harsh Realities of Life’ ending
• The ‘somewhere in the middle with a glimmer of hope’ ending

After briefly describing each, choose the one you think is most likely.

Foreshadowing

(Kris asked the following as a response to the last post. I have elevated it to a post of its own.)

Foreshadowing is a literary term. Can you figure out what it means?

Why does an author foreshadow?

Once you understand it, can you equate it to the way that tv or movies would use it?

Next, can you trace back and find evidence of foreshadowing in the novel? What event does it relate to? How is it being shown?

Brutal

Ben and I read chapter 11 yesterday and chapter 12 today. I am glad that we only read one each day since they were quite brutal.

Which of the following would be worse?

1. Watching a Dog get weaseled.
2. Hearing that your father tell you that he thinks he will die soon.
3. Eating chocolate cake with a topping of nuts pulled from a squirrel pouch?

To make matters worse, he has the prospect of a possibly barren brood sow / friend becoming another customer of his father’s services.

Let’s focus on the question of friend/pet versus food. How would you describe Haven Peck’s feelings about animals (farm and wild)?
(Does Haven Peck get joy from slaughtering pigs? If Pinky does prove to be barren, how do you think Haven would feel about killing her? We got a look into Haven’s mind as he talked to Robert after the ‘weaseling’ – what does that tell us about him? Do we – those of us that consume meat anyway – have something to learn from Haven’s attitude toward animals? )

Eye Opener

Ben and I were talking about Robert's trip to the Rutland Fair. I suggested that this must have been quite an eye opening experience for him. It gave him access to a whole new world of possibilities.

Ben, can you write a couple of paragraphs about an eye opening experience that you have had? (I asked Ben to make some modifications to his initial post. They appear in order as comments.)