Junkyard Jaunt by Robert Jennings (p. 29) Teacher s Page Plot Summary Ray Pherberrey is the reckless son of a Green Beret soldier, and Harvey Thiggle is his timid sidekick. On Halloween night Ray and Harvey are trick-or-treating when Ray annoys a group of high school seniors. Ray and Harvey run from the older boys and eventually get lost in the woods. They discover a junkyard and break in, hoping to find help. Ray gets carried away playing with the junked cars and attracts the attention of the junkyard s owner, Crazy Jim. Crazy Jim has clearly been drinking, and he brings his.22 caliber rifle to bear on the boys. Ray and Harvey run through the junkyard in the dark, hiding among various vehicles as Jim continues to shoot at them. Harvey wants to curl up and hide, but Ray keeps urging him to action. Finally the boys escape and make it home to angry parents. Throughout the adventure Ray urges Harvey to relax and have fun, and Harvey urges Ray to slow down and be careful. Interpreting the Story: Focus on Characterization and Plot Note: These activities can be completed in sequence and combined with the Before You Read activity on the Student s Page and the Responding Creatively activity below to produce the beginnings of an original story. 1. Ask your students to suggest words that describe Ray s personality. They will probably say he is reckless, optimistic, brave, fun-loving, exciting, a leader. Also ask them to describe Harvey s personality. They may say he is a follower, a pessimist, cowardly, a worrier, and cautious. 2. Ask your students to find the incidents and dialogue which reveal the characters personalities. For example, when the boys find the junkyard, Ray says optimistically, Come on! Maybe there s a security guard or someone who can help us! Characteristically, Harvey sees the situation pessimistically, Yeah, and maybe the security guard will blow our heads off for trespassing! 3. Then ask your students to think about the pattern on which the story is based. In each incident, Ray urges Harvey to do something; Harvey refuses at first and then gives in; Ray urges Harvey on to the next action; Harvey again resists and gives in. The pattern is varied when Ray actually takes action himself or when an external complication, such as Crazy Jim, appears. Responding Creatively to the Story After they have read the story, ask your students to look back on the qualities and situations they listed in response to the first Before You Read question. Invite them to begin a story in which the leader and the follower show their personalities in a particular situation through action and dialogue. The story might simply begin with one character urging the other to do something. The second character resists briefly and then gives in. Then the first character urges another action, and so on. Connecting with Cultural Values and Students Lives These questions may guide your students to a deeper understanding of how the story relates to their own lives. The discussion may also be used to foster the positive values of honesty, respect for the property of others, and thinking about consequences. 1. Since this piece is comic, students may not take the situation very seriously at first. However, Ray and Harvey are trespassing on Crazy Jim s property. What is wrong with breaking into someone else s property, even if it is a junkyard? What unexpected consequences might the boys face? (Students might point out that the boys could get injured in the junkyard; the police might arrest them; Crazy Jim might hurt them or himself.) Guide to Something like a Hero 9 Junkyard Jaunt
Teacher s Page Connecting with Cultural Values and Students Lives continued 2. Crazy Jim is apparently using his rifle while intoxicated. Students might consider how he would feel if he actually wounded or killed one of the boys. Who would bear the blame in such a case? Unfortunately, accidental shootings are often in the news. You may want to call students attention to recent reports of these events. 3. What alternatives does Harvey have to following Ray s lead? Students should be able to work out a better plan for Harvey. Students may also want to discuss the power of peer pressure. Brainteasers for Critical Thinking 1. What s in a name? Well, when your name is Harvey S. Thiggle or Raymond Pherberrey, the world soon lets you know. But what if their names were Jack Arnold and Ron Williams? Would standard names like these have diminished the story in any way? Are Thiggle and Pherberrey well-named for this adventure? Why, or why not? 2. By paragraph two, readers may already be regarding these two characters as a comedy team. Is there a straight man playing against a goofball, or do both seem equal in their buffoonery? What, besides their names, sets one character apart from the other? Are these believable characters? Do they need to be? 3. Picture this: You re lost in a deep, dark wood with Harv and Ray, who are about to part company at a crossroads. With which gent do you cast your fate in seeking your way back out to civilization? In other words, whom do you most trust, and why? 4. Junkyard humor runs the gamut from the subtlest to the most obvious. Find some of the subtler expressions (as in, Perceiving a problem, Harvey took off after his fleeing friend ) and notice how the different levels and degrees of humor blend with and complement each other. 5. If you randomly pick out bits of dialogue, you may find that it consists mainly of excited outbursts (insults, orders, warnings, laments, whimpers, etc.) which, along with the gunfire, punctuate and propel the action. In real life, superfluous words are the norm; here, not a word is wasted. What makes this author s tight rein on dialogue so important? 6. How do you account for the fact that Ray enjoyed his jaunt while Harvey didn t? Don t forget that Ray suffered injuries to his shoulder, tailbone, and pinkie, not to mention the profuse sweating and embarrassing wetness problem discreetly detected by his charitable friend Harvey! This is fun? Did Ray indeed demonstrate the can-do bravery of his Green Beret father? If not, what would you say he did demonstrate? Guide to Something like a Hero 10 Junkyard Jaunt
Before You Read 1. In the space below brainstorm a list of qualities that might describe a character in a story. You might list qualities such as brave, sensitive, cowardly, etc. Your teacher may want you to share your list with other students. When you have listed ten or twelve qualities, choose three similar ones that might go together to describe one character, such as brave, adventurous, and strong. Then make a list of the opposites of each of the three qualities. In this case, it might be cowardly, timid, weak. List 1: List 2 (opposites): 2. Now brainstorm situations in which the character from list one might lead another (from list two) into trouble. Connecting with Other Stories Harvey and Jim can be compared to a slightly different pair, Rorik and Urik, in Test of Manhood, beginning on page 43 of Something like a Hero. That story is not comic, but it does feature one bold character who encourages a timid character to action. Harvey and Jim are also a bit like the bungling kidnappers, Bill and Sam, in O. Henry s The Ransom of Red Chief, in that they suffer continual physical humiliation. If you read Test of Manhood or The Ransom of Red Chief, pay attention to the ways the characters treat each other. These actions are patterns of behavior. You can probably also think of TV or movie duos who behave according to patterns. Guide to Something like a Hero 11 Junkyard Jaunt
Vocabulary from Junkyard Jaunt Directions: Based on the way each word in bold below is used in the sentence, write what you think the word means. Then look up the same word in your dictionary and copy the definition that comes closest to the way the word is used in the sentence. Finally, write a sentence of your own using the word. Make sure the sentence shows what the word means. Use a separate sheet of paper. Example: Harv trotted up beside him and scowled. (p. 30) Definition based on context: looked upset, frowned Dictionary definition: facial expression of displeasure, frown (Webster s Tenth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1994) Original sentence: After waiting for several hours at the airport, the tour group operator scowled when the flight was cancelled. 1. The full moon illuminated the woods, lighting the way as Harvey Thiggle and Ray Pherberrey vainly tried to find civilization. (p. 29) 2. Ray always tried to emulate the can-do bravery of his Green Beret father. (p. 30) 3. Come on! Maybe there s a security guard or someone who can help us! Yeah, and maybe that security guard will blow our heads off for trespassing! (p. 30) 4. A hibernating snake, that s what. Or worse, a wide-awake snake that was looking for a bedtime snack. (p. 31) 5. Ray wiped off the sweat and pursed his lips. Yeah, this is gonna take some finesse. (p. 33) 6. When the going gets tough, the intelligent seek shelter. Or as Ray s dad would pithily say, If somebody shoots at you, take cover. (p. 35) 7. Harv tried to ignore the churning acid in his stomach and the ulcer he knew was forming that very minute. (p. 36) 8. Harvey didn t know what to say. Make a run for safety with Ray the Wacko Turkey, or spend the night alone in a reeking minivan and hope Crazy Jim sobered up some before finding him. (p. 38) Guide to Something like a Hero 12 Junkyard Jaunt
Reading Check for Junkyard Jaunt Circle the letters of all the correct answers. Some questions have more than one correct answer. 1. Ray and Harvey find the junkyard because they a. are looking for a car part b. are lost c. are looking for Ray s girlfriend d. were kidnapped 2. Ray gets Crazy Jim s attention by a. blowing a car horn d. singing loudly b. lighting a firecracker c. turning on headlights 3. Harvey escapes by a. climbing the fence b. hiding until Jim leaves c. breaking the gate lock with his crow bar d. lying about his name and age 4. In this story, Ray a. taunts some high school kids b. looks for money in abandoned cars c. wets his pants d. drinks two cans of beer 5. In this story Jim shoots a. a Yale lock b. car headlights c. the gas tank of a truck d. Ray Language Study in Context: Pronoun Puzzler A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. He, she, it, we, they, their, us, and me are examples of pronouns. The trick with pronouns is to be sure your reader can tell which noun the pronoun stands for. In the well-known joke, My father shot the elephant in his pajamas, it sounds like the elephant is wearing pajamas. On the other hand, writing without pronouns can be very awkward. In the following selection from Junkyard Jaunt, the pronouns have been replaced with nouns. See if you can substitute appropriate pronouns without making the paragraph confusing. Then compare your work to the author s on page 35. Use a separate sheet of paper. As Harvey and Ray made Harvey and Ray s way through the confusing maze of cars and trucks, Harvey heard a noise, a noise that scared Harvey as much as the bullets did. Not far away, the sound of rattling cans and a body hitting the ground signified Jim s presence. Jim spewed cuss words, slurring the cuss words so badly that Harvey could barely tell what the words were. The man was drunk and although Harv was no rocket scientist, Harvey knew exactly what this meant. Yes, alcohol dulls people s senses including the sense of right and wrong. If Jim got close enough, Jim wouldn t shoot to scare, or shoot to wound and take to the police. Jim was an angry wino, and Jim would shoot to kill. Guide to Something like a Hero 13 Junkyard Jaunt