Alligator/Cremation of Sam McGee

Alligator/Cremation of Sam McGee

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Literary Analysis: Comparing Humorous Essays 

Humorous essays are works of nonfiction meant to amuse readers. To entertain, authors may use one or more of these comic techniques:

• presenting an illogical, inappropriate, improper, or unusual situation

• contrasting reality with characters’ mistaken views

• exaggerating the truth or exaggerating the feelings, ideas, and actions of characters

Literary Analysis: Comparing Humorous Essays 

While most humorists want to entertain the reader, many also want to convey a serious message. Writers of humorous essays often develop the humor through the characters they present. For example, humorous characters are central to “Alligator” and “The Cremation of Sam McGee.”

Multiple Choice

What is amusing about the following passage from "Alligator"?

Then my aunt would jump up, wave her arms in the air, and shout, "Whoo!" With a tremendous leap and flop the alligator would throw himself into the water.

• Aunt Belle is not scared of the alligator, but the alligator may be scared of her.

• Aunt Belle is jumping around and waving her arms because she is scared of the alligator.

• Aunt Belle is too old to be jumping around, waving her arms, and scaring alligators.

• Aunt Belle is scaring the alligator just as much as the alligator is scaring her.

Multiple Choice

In "alligator", the alligator is described as

• bellowing loudly

• the biggest alligator they had ever seen

• swimming fiercely toward Aunt Belle

• feared by everyone

Multiple Choice

What is significant about the fact that the alligator bellows after Aunt Belle turns off the truck's engine?

• The alligator bellows when he is hungry.

• Belle knows when the alligator is about to bellow.

• The alligator does not like the noise the truck makes.

• Belle has trained the alligator to bellow when she cuts the engine.

Multiple Choice

Near the end of "Alligator", why is Aunt Belle spending a lot of time at the pond?

• She enjoys being outdoors because her house is empty and quiet.

• The alligator cannot be found, and she is spending her time looking for him.

• Her children are grown, she is lonely, and the alligator keeps her company.

• She enjoys watching the alligator swim out to the middle of the pond and disappear.

Multiple Choice

At the end of "Alligator", why does Aunt Belle walk "around and around the pond looking, listening, and sniffing"?

• The alligator killed an animal whose carcass is decaying.

• The alligator has not come to sit with her and has probably died.

• Belle has dementia and believes that the alligator is hiding from her.

• Belle is entertaining the children who are watching from high up on the bank.

Multiple Choice

What does Sam McGee mean when he says that he would "sooner live in hell"?

• He thinks that living in the Arctic is like living in hell.

• He would rather be in hell than feel cold all the time,

• He thinks that living in Tennessee is like living in hell.

• He believes that he will soon be living in hell

Multiple Choice

What does Sam McGee tell the speaker before the men go to sleep on Christmas night?

• He is returning to Tennessee.

• He has discovered gold.

• He will die soon.

• He is very hungry.

Multiple Choice

Why is the setting of "The Cremation of Sam McGee" important to the poem's conflict?

• It brings the two characters together.

• It is beyond the experience of most readers.

• It creates the conflict by causing Sam's death.

• It creates the conflict by causing Sam to go insane.

Multiple Choice

What makes "The Cremation of Sam McGee" a narrative poem?

• It uses regular rhythm and rhyme.

• The speaker is character in the poem.

• It contains a surprise ending.

• It is a poem that tells a story.

Multiple Choice

Which is an example of simile from "The Cremation of Sam McGee"?

• "cotton blooms and blows"

• "it stabbed like a driven nail"

• "the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe"

• "I hurried, horror-driven,"

Multiple Choice

Which statement is NOT true of both "Alligator" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee"?

• The narrator uses exaggeration to create humor.

• The narrator describes an illogical or unusual situation.

• The narrator concludes in a more serious tone.

• The narrator writes both about family members and animals.

Multiple Choice

In which scene is the writer of "Alligator" or "The Cremation of Sam McGee" presenting an unusual situation in order to create humor?

• Aunt Belle gets used to seeing the alligator

• Aunt Belle teaches an alligator to bellow.

• Sam McGee has a last request.

• The narrator promises to honor McGee's request.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following scenes from "Alligator" or "The Cremation of Sam McGee" is an example of exaggeration?

• Aunt Belle crawls through the marsh to meet an alligator face to face.

• Aunt Belle drives down to the pond and guns the engine.

• Sam McGee mushes a dog team down the Dawson trail on Christmas day.

• Sam McGee whimpers over the cold.

Multiple Choice

In what way are Aunt Belle and Sam McGee similar?

• Both characters come from a cold climate.

• Both characters are adventurous.

• Both characters have a mistaken view of reality.

• Both characters are training an animal to do something unusual.