Objectives:
Students will learn to understand the author’s purpose and the means by which this purpose is achieved. They will think critically about people’s attitude to nature. Students will view life and nature from different perspectives. Students will be given an opportunity to reflect upon the text.
Skills development:
Students will practice reading for understanding the characters’ attitudes and feelings. They will practice speaking about different attitudes to a literature text. They will discuss implied meaning. They will compare and contrast cultural information. They will practice understanding the author’s message.
1. Look at the picture. What do you know about hawks? Describe the bird.
2. Read the text.
THE HAWK by Keith Marklund
Robert had followed the man for two weeks. The man had been killing eagles and hawks. The man was a white man. An Indian would never kill such beautiful birds for money. And, Robert thought, an Indian would never kill any living thing for "fun". But this white man that Robert had been following had come to the great Canadian Northwest to kill for money, and to kill for fun. The eagles which the man killed were not to be killed: the law said so. But people in cities like Toronto, or New York, or Los Angeles would pay to have a dead eagle for their offices. But why did the man kill hawks? Just to see them fall from the sky. Just for "fun".
Robert had learned much about the white man when he was at an Indian school in the south. He had learned their language, English. And he learned that people who lived in cities were often afraid of things that were free and outside of their control. After seeing the way they lived he had gone home. He had gone back to the great forests of Canada where he too could be free. Now he worked for the forest service in the Northwest Territories. And now his job was to catch this man who killed eagles for money, and hawks for fun.
The man was easy to follow in the snow. The man had a snowmobile, and the tracks the machine made were clear in the snow. Robert also had a snowmobile. Although he had started to follow the man several days after the first report, he was soon close behind him. And then he had found the dead hawk in the snow. Its bright red blood left a clear sign that the man had been there.
He had shot the hawk just to see it fall, and he had left it to die in the snow. Robert had picked up the dead hawk in his hands. When he was born, a hawk had flown high above his home near the ocean to the west. His father had told him that it was his sign, his bird, his special friend. He and the hawk were very much alike.
After Robert found the dead hawk, he had wanted the man to know that he was being hunted. Robert had gone ahead faster. Soon he had gone ahead of the man. Then, he took a piece of red cloth and tied it to a tree. He took a feather from the hawk and put it under the red cloth. The man would see the red cloth and the feather. He would wonder. And he would be afraid.
Then, at night, when everything was silent, Robert came close to the man's camp. He waited until the man's fire had died. He waited until the man was asleep. Then he came closer. And then he walked once in a great circle around the man's camp. When the man woke up he would see the footsteps in the snow.
And he would be afraid. Then, on the second night after the hawk had died, Robert watched the man keep his fire going until very late. "He's waiting for me," Robert thought, "the man who kills hawks for fun wants to know who is hunting him."
Finally, the man fell asleep, and Robert came closer through the snow. Suddenly, Robert stood up, and in the middle of the silent night, gave a great, terrible scream! The man came running out of his tent with his gun in his hand. "Who's there?" he cried, and fired the gun into the blackness. "Who are you?" he yelled, and fired the gun again.
Robert remained quiet. The man did not go back to sleep.
On the third night it was very late when the man fell asleep. Robert was careful. He carried his gun with him. Slowly, and very quietly, he went closer to the sleeping man, the man that killed hawks for fun. Then, very quietly, Robert tied a piece of red cloth and a feather from the dead hawk to the man's snowmobile. He put some ices of wood on the man's fire. Then he quietly moved a little way back from the camp.
He waited until the fire was burning, and then gave another loud scream! The man jumped up, his face torn by fear. He saw the feather on the snowmobile, and in his fear, shot his gun at it. The bullets crashed into the metal. The man screamed out in his fear, "Who are you? What are you?" And then the night was quiet again.
The next morning the man started walking through the snow. His snowmobile was dead. Robert stood on a high hill and watched the man far below him. "I wonder if he'll make it," Robert thought, "it's a long way to the next town. About seventy miles."
The man fell down in the deep snow. The man slowly got up again. "But hawks don't kill for fun," Robert said. He started down the hill after the man.
3. Answer the questions (Text — information):
1. Why does Robert follow the white man?
2. What do you know about Robert?
3. What might Robert have done when he first saw the white man?
4. What did he do instead? Why?
5. Robert uses signs instead of words. What do these signs tell the white man?
6. How do the white man's reactions change?
7. How did the story end?
4. Text - your views and comments:
1. The whole story is told from the Indian's point of view. What is the effect on the reader?
2. The narrator several times compares what the white man does with what an Indian would not do. What differences are there?
3. The Indian's view of the world and living things comes through in the sentence, “but hawks don't kill for fun”. What are some of the characteristics of such a world view?
5. Text – understanding its language:
1. The style in which Keith Marklund has written this story further characterizes the Indian forest ranger. He is very sure about his way of viewing the world around him. How is this shown in the style of the story?
2. What connection between the picture of a hawk and this story do you see?
6. Points for discussion.
1. Despite being very short, the story is full of sound and color. Go through the text and give examples of it. Show that the text “lives”.
What effect does this have on the reader?
2. Indians believe that when a baby is born, Nature gives him a bird or a plant as a special friend, which will help and protect him in his life.
If you were an Indian, which plant or animal would you choose? Why? Give reasons for your choice.
3. What is Robert’s main principal of life?
Homework:
People often talk much. Words are often of little importance and help. So signs play a great role in this story. What signs would you use to express your own ideas, thoughts and wishes? If you can, draw some signs in order to prove your ideas and explain their meaning.