She Unnames Them

Why does the author embed so many allusions in the text?

• Leguin uses the allusions to help the reader understand her main character's struggles and connect with them on a deeper level.

• Leguin utilizes allusion to suggest that the Bible disagrees with racism and divisions between people.

• Leguin includes allusions in order to show a subversion of what is expected from her main character and show changing times.

• Leguin embeds allusions in the story to signal to the reader she is well-educated.

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.9

Why did most creatures accept namelessness with "perfect indifference"?

• Animals, unlike humans, live in the moment and don't worry about classifying themselves. This shows how divisions are actually created by people in the first place.

• Animals, unlike humans, are happy with their current status, wherever they fall in the food chain, because they can accept God's will without rebellion. This shows how they are superior to people like her.

• Animals don't consider humans the experts on their names. This shows the conflict between wilderness and civilization that continues forever.

• Animals don't know their own names. This shows that animals are uneducated and not worthy of consideration.

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

Why did some of the pets (like dogs and parrots) object to losing their names at first?

• They felt their species names gave them greater status since they were treasured pets.

• They valued their species names because they were named by humans, and they value humans more than the wild animals do.

• They didn't like the idea of everyone being equal.

• They wanted to keep their individual names, which they had attachments to, and did not understand they could still keep those.

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

What is suggested about Adam in the story?

• He is angry with Eve for eating the forbidden fruit.

• He is a neglectful husband.

• He is upset that Eve has taken away all the names.

• He is frustrated with Eve's unhappiness and inability to be self-satisfied.

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

Which line best supports Eve's reason for leaving at the end?

• "Most of them accepted namelessness with the perfect indifference with which they had so long accepted and ignored their names."

• " It was somewhat more powerful than I had anticipated, but I could not now, in all conscience, make an exception for myself."

• "It is hard to give back a gift without sounding peevish or ungrateful, and I did not want to leave him with that impression of me."

• "My words now must be as slow, as new, as single, as tentative as the steps I took going down the path away from the house, between the dark-branched, tall dancers motionless against the winter shining."

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.3