Bag of Bones

Which statement best describes the theme of this poem?

• Death itself is cruel because everyone dies alone and leaves their loved ones behind.

• The inevitability of death erases differences between individuals.

• Tragedy occurs both on the grand, collective scale and on the smaller, individual scale.

• War desensitizes people to loss and death over time.

RL.1.1

PART B: Which quote from the poem best supports the answer to Part A (Theme)?

• “To depart without death or birth certificates / the dictator does not give receipts / when he takes your life” (Lines 30-32)

• "It solved by itself a math problem/ that multiplied the one death by millions/ to equal homeland." (Lines 37-39)

• “He has an audience, too, / an audience that claps / until the bones begin to rattle —” (Lines 41-43)

• “the full bag finally in her hand, / unlike her disappointed neighbor” (Lines 45-46)

RL.2.5

The focus of the poem shifts at line 30. How does this shift contribute to the meaning of the poem?

• As the speaker turns from mourning victims to accusing their executioner, the poem focuses on the injustice of the dictator's rule.

• The focus of the poem shrinks from that of a mass grave to the life of one man, and this emphasizes survivors’ feelings of guilt.

• The scope of the poem expands from a meditation on death to a criticism of tyranny, and this develops the poem’s call to action.

• As the speaker walks away from the mass grave, the poem emphasizes how survivors can secure closure.

The speaker describes...

• someone digging up a grave in a cemetery.

• a woman finding a man’s skeleton in a mass grave.

• a woman burying a body that she found.

• a woman wondering what her husband’s skull looks like.

What happened to the man for whom the woman is looking?

• He died in battle while fighting a dictator.

• He is missing and his body cannot be found in the mass grave.

• He was sentenced to serve in the army for life.

• He was executed by the country’s ruler.

With which statement would the speaker most likely agree?

• The dictator did not want to kill people but was forced to do it.

• The dictator is a good person who is often misunderstood.

• The dictator is a cruel person who killed many of his people.

• The dictator was an awful person but was punished for his crimes.

In Dunya Mikhail's "Bag of Bones," there are a lot of tones. What is meant by tones?

• how the readers feel about the subject

• how the speakers feel about the subject

• how the critics react about the subject

The following can be the tones of the poem except

• relief

• grieving

• bitter

• contentment

The first two lines "What good luck!

She has found his bones"

and the last two lines "unlike her disappointed neighbor

who has not yet found her own" create tension because

• of the discovery of her child’s bones

• there are still loved ones who have not been able to locate the remains of their children despite knowing that they are deceased

• both of these choices are correct

• neither one of them is correct

The poem also shows the cultural experience of the author. Which of the following is not part of it?

• customs

• arts

• social instructions

• achievements