SADDLEBACK

STUDY GUIDE

Saddleback’s literature study guides

FOCUS ON READING
Jacob Have I Loved

Give your students the background and support they need to

Focus
ON RE ADING
understand and enjoy literature. With these study guides, your
students will practice reading comprehension skills, sharpen
their vocabulary, and learn to identify literary elements.
READING
• Prepares all students for reading success through Vocabulary COMPREHENSION
prereading background building

• Focuses reading with guiding “Questions to Think About”

• Builds vocabulary with prereading and during-reading activities

• Develops cultural literacy by using well-known literature

• Includes a comprehensive end-of-book test

For more information on other titles in the Focus on Reading series,

visit our website: sdlback.com
Jacob Have
I Loved
Katherine Paterson
Three Watson • Irvine, California 92618-2767
1-888-735-2225 • sdlback.com
ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Reproducible Activities
Focus
ON READING

Jacob Have I
Loved

Lisa French
 Three Watson
Irvine, CA 92618-2767
Web site: www.sdlback.com

Copyright © 2006 by Saddleback Educational Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written
permission of the publisher, with the exception below.

Pages labeled with the statement Saddleback Educational Publishing © 2006 are intended for reproduction. Saddleback Educational Publishing
grants to individual purchasers of this book the right to make sufficient copies of reproducible pages for use by all students of a single teacher.
This permission is limited to a single teacher and does not apply to entire schools or school systems.

ISBN-1-59905-111-7
Printed in the United States of America
10 09 08 07 06 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 Contents

Introduction/Classroom Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Focus on the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

Focus Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

I. Rass Island–Chapter 3 IV. Chapters 11–13

Focus Your Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2–3 Focus Your Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20–21
Build Your Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Build Your Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Check Your Understanding: Check Your Understanding:
Multiple Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Multiple Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Check Your Understanding: Check Your Understanding:
Short Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Short Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Deepen Your Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Deepen Your Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

II. Chapters 4–6 V. Chapters 14–16

Focus Your Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8–9 Focus Your Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26–27
Build Your Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Build Your Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Check Your Understanding: Check Your Understanding:
Multiple Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Multiple Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Check Your Understanding: Check Your Understanding:
Short Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Short Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Deepen Your Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Deepen Your Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

III. Chapters 7–10 VI. Chapters 17–20

Focus Your Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14–15 Focus Your Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32–33
Build Your Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Build Your Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Check Your Understanding: Check Your Understanding:
Multiple Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Multiple Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Check Your Understanding: Check Your Understanding:
Short Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Short Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Deepen Your Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Deepen Your Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

End-of-Book Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

iii
 Introduction/Classroom Management
Welcome to Focus on Reading Before Reading
Focus on Reading literature study guides are designed • Focus Your Reading consists of 3 prereading
to help all students comprehend and analyze their sections:
reading. Many teachers have grappled with the question
of how to make quality literature accessible to all Vocabulary Words to Know lists and defines 10
students. Students who are already avid readers of vocabulary words students will encounter in their
quality literature are motivated to read and are familiar reading. Students will not have to interrupt their
with prereading and reading strategies. However, reading to look up, ask for, or spend a lot of time
struggling readers frequently lack basic reading skills figuring out the meaning of unfamiliar words. These
and are not equipped with the prior knowledge and words are later studied in-depth within the lesson.
reading strategies to thoroughly engage in the Things to Know identifies terms or concepts that are
classroom literature experience. integral to the reading but that may not be familiar to
Focus on Reading is designed to make teachers’ and today’s students. This section is intended to “level the
students’ lives easier! How? By providing materials that playing field” for those students who may not have
allow all students to take part in reading quality much prior knowledge about the time period, culture,
literature. Each Focus on Reading study guide contains or theme of the book. It also gets students involved
activities that focus on vocabulary and comprehension with the book, increasing interest before they begin
skills that students need to get the most from their reading.
reading. In addition, each section within the guide Questions to Think About helps students focus on
contains a before-reading Focus Your Reading page the main ideas and important details they should
containing tools to ensure success: Vocabulary Words be looking for as they read. This activity helps give
to Know, Things to Know, and Questions to Think students a purpose for reading. The goal of these
About. These study aids will help students who may guiding questions is to build knowledge, confidence,
not have the prior knowledge they need to truly and comfort with the topics in the reading.
comprehend During Reading
the reading. • Build Your Vocabulary presents the 10 unit focus
words in the exact context of the book. Students are
Using Focus on Reading then asked to write their own definitions and
Focus on Reading is designed to make it easy for you sentences for the words.
to meet the individual needs of students who require • Check Your Understanding: Multiple Choice offers
additional reading skills support. Each Focus on Reading 10 multiple-choice, literal comprehension questions
study guide contains teacher and student support for each section.
materials, reproducible student activity sheets, an end-
• Check Your Understanding: Short Answer contains
of-book test, and an answer key.
10 short-answer questions based on the reading.
• Focus on the Book, a convenient reference section
for the teacher, provides a brief overview of the After Reading
entire book including a synopsis, information about • Deepen Your Understanding is a writing activity
the setting, author data, and historical background. that extends appreciation and analysis of the book.
• Focus Your Knowledge, a reference page for This activity focuses on critical-thinking skills and
students, is a whole-book, prereading activity literary analysis.
designed to activate prior knowledge and immerse • End-of-Book Test contains 20 multiple-choice items
students in the topic. covering the book. These items ask questions that
The study guide divides the novel into 6 manageable require students to synthesize the information in the
sections to make it easy to plan classroom time. Five book and make inferences in their answers.
activities are devoted to each section of the novel.

iv
 Introduction/Classroom Management v

Classroom Management other involved adults can review vocabulary words with
Focus on Reading is very flexible. It can be used by the students, offer their own insights about the historical
whole class, by small groups, or by individuals. Each and cultural background outlined, and become familiar
study guide divides the novel into 6 manageable units with the ideas students will be reading about. This can
of study. help families talk to students in a meaningful way about
This literature comprehension program is simple to their reading, and it gives the adults something concrete
use. Just photocopy the lessons and distribute them at to ask about to be sure that students are reading and
the appropriate time as students read the novel. understanding.
You may want to reproduce and discuss the Focus The Build Your Vocabulary and Check Your
Your Knowledge page before distributing the Understanding: Multiple Choice and Short Answer
paperbacks. This page develops and activates prior activities should be distributed when students begin
knowledge to ensure that students have a grounding in reading the corresponding section of the novel. These
the book before beginning reading. After reading this literature guide pages are intended to help students
whole-book prereading page, students are ready to dive comprehend and retain what they read; they should be
into the book. available for students to refer to at any time during the
The Focus Your Reading prereading activities are the reading.
keystone of this program. They prepare students for Deepen Your Understanding is an optional extension
what they are going to read, providing focus for the activity that goes beyond literal questions about the
complex task of reading. These pages should be book, asking students for their own ideas and
distributed before students actually begin reading the opinions—and the reasons behind them. These
corresponding section of the novel. There are no postreading activities generally focus on literary
questions to be answered on these pages; these are for analysis.
reference and support during reading. Students may As reflected in its title, the End-of-Book Test is a
choose to take notes on these pages as they read. This postreading comprehension test to be completed after
will also give students a study tool for review before the the entire novel has been read.
End-of-Book Test. For your convenience, a clear Answer Key simplifies
The Focus Your Reading pages also provide an the scoring process.
excellent bridge to home. Parents, mentors, tutors, or

v
 Focus on the Book
Synopsis Further blows cause Louise to deepen her isolation
In this first-person narrative, Sara Louise Bradshaw from friends and family. In the fall of 1942, the Captain
Wojtkiewicz looks back on her life as a young girl marries an invalid elderly neighbor. Following her death
coming of age on a small island in the Chesapeake Bay soon thereafter, the Captain uses the money from his
in the 1940s. Louise Bradford, or “Wheeze,” as she is late wife’s legacy to send Caroline to boarding school so
usually called, is an ungainly, unhappy adolescent who that she can develop her extraordinary musical talents.
is burdened by the story of her birth. The firstborn of In the spring of 1943, both Caroline and Call depart—
twin girls, she “treasures” the first few minutes of her she to school in Baltimore, he to the navy and then to
life—the only moments when she has not been the war. Louise’s feelings of utter rejection are once
overshadowed by her pretty, talented, sunny sister, again reinforced by her grandmother, who quotes the
Caroline. comfortless biblical passage about Isaac’s twin sons:
Thirteen-year-old Louise emulates her father and the “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
other men on Rass Island by “following the water.” For the duration of World War II, Louise remains on
During the summer of 1941, she poles her skiff through the island, working alongside her father on his boat.
the shallow waters surrounding the tiny and fragile Once the war is over, any lingering hopes for a fulfilling
island, crabbing and catching an occasional terrapin. life on Rass are dashed when Call and Caroline get
Her business partner, fourteen-year-old McCall Purnell married. With the gentle help of her loving parents,
(Call), is as ungainly and socially isolated as Louise. Louise is finally able to come to terms with her own
Although the two have dramatically different feelings of inferiority. In the spring of 1947, she leaves
dispositions, their shared work ethic, love of the water, the island and finds her own place in the world.
and desire to earn money for their families render them About the Author
inseparable.
Katherine Paterson was born in 1932 in China, where
The arrival of a mysterious older man in the spring of
her parents were working as missionaries. When war
1942 brings changes to Louise’s small world. The
broke out in 1937 between China and Japan, the family
Captain, as he is called, immediately becomes a father
was displaced—a troubling, yet educational, experience
figure to Call, pulling him away from Louise and
for Katherine and her four siblings. Although the family
creating in her deep resentment. Soon the Captain
moved frequently, Katherine’s mother often read aloud
reveals himself to be Hiram Wallace, a former islander
to the children, inspiring Katherine to teach herself to
who had fled Rass in shame many years before. He has
read before she even began school. From an early age,
now reoccupied the family home, which once boasted
she loved to write stories and poems.
the most pasture land on the island. Erosion and the
At college, Paterson majored in English literature.
encroaching waters of the Bay have since wiped out all
After a brief stint teaching in a rural Virginia school, she
of the pasture land.
went back to school to study religious education, then
A hurricane in the summer of 1942 brings more
moved to Japan as a missionary in 1957. Four years
unwelcome changes. The Captain’s family home is
later, she received a fellowship to study at Union
washed away, and he is taken in by the Bradshaws.
Theological Seminary in New York City. There she met
Much to her consternation, Louise develops an
John Paterson, whom she married in 1962 and with
adolescent passion for the elderly man. In this insular
whom she has raised four children.
society, firmly controlled by the Methodist Church,
After the birth of her first child, Paterson began to
Louise feels deep shame for such an unconventional
write seriously. Her first novel was published in 1973;
love. Exacerbating her distress is Louise’s grandmother,
this was followed by three novels about feudal Japan
a malevolent character who takes every opportunity to
(The Sign of the Chrysanthemum, Of Nightingales That
demean the girl, castigating her with stern passages
Weep, and The Master Puppeteer). The Master Puppeteer
from the Old Testament. In the meantime, Caroline has
won the National Book Award in Children’s Literature
begun to take Louise’s place as the friend and
in 1977. This was followed by Bridge to Terabithia,
confidante of both Call and the Captain.
(continued)

vi
 Focus on the Book (continued)

which won the 1978 Newbery Medal. Paterson’s next 2,400 American soldiers. Nineteen ships and 150 planes
book, The Great Gilly Hopkins, received a 1979 Newbery belonging to the U.S. Pacific Fleet were also destroyed.
Honor as well as the National Book Award. Paterson’s The nation’s three aircraft carriers were out at sea at the
second Newbery Medal was awarded in 1981 for Jacob time and were undamaged. However, most of the
Have I Loved. Her more recent work includes Lyddie Pacific Fleet was wiped out in one day. It was the Pearl
(1991), Flip-Flop Girl (1994), and The Quest of the Grail Harbor attack that propelled the United States into the
Knight (1998). war.
Katherine Paterson is especially known for her skill in In Chapter 15, Louise mentions pulling the blackout
understanding the minds and hearts of young people curtains closed in her bedroom. Some students may be
who are facing particular challenges or troubles. Of unaware that civilians living along the East Coast of the
Jacob Have I Loved she has said, “In life both the light United States, which was considered vulnerable to a
and the dark exist in each of us; each of us is our own German air attack, were ordered to cover their windows
twin. So finally Sara Louise, in order to be a whole with heavy blackout curtains so that no lights could be
person, must come to love Caroline, so that she can detected at night from the air. In the same chapter,
love both the Jacob and the Esau within herself.” there is a reference to the “three island boys” who die in
the fall of 1943 “off a tiny island in the South Pacific”;
Historical Background
this is probably one of the islands in the Solomon,
Jacob Have I Loved is set primarily in the 1940s on a Marshall, or Mariana islands, where key Allied landings
small, endangered fictional island in the Chesapeake occurred in 1943.
Bay area of Maryland. The personal dramas of Louise D day, mentioned in the last paragraph of Chapter
Bradshaw and her friends and family are placed against 15, took place on June 6, 1944. This was the official
the larger backdrop of World War II and a world in beginning of Operation Overlord, a major assault
chaos. The isolation of the Bradshaw family is under joint British and United States command on
emphasized by the fact that their only reliable news of German-occupied France. The Allied invasion, which
the outside world comes from an “ancient radio,” Time took place at several strategic locations along the
magazine, and the day-old Baltimore Sun. Normandy coast, involved 176,000 troops, 100
After a brief prologue (“Rass Island”), the story opens warships, 12,000 planes, 1,500 tanks, and 4,000 landing
in the summer of 1941, when the United States is still craft. It marked a turning point in the war and brought
feeling the effects of the Great Depression and the liberation to Western Europe.
country has not yet entered the war. There are jokes Adolf Hitler, whom Louise describes as “the funny
about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who mustached German dictator,” seems remote to most of
“thinks he’s God”—references to Roosevelt’s sweeping the inhabitants of Rass. His death, which is briefly
New Deal reforms and unprecedented governmental referred to in Chapter 16, was a suicide; Hitler took his
controls on the nation’s economy. own life on April 30, 1945, as the Soviet Army occupied
There are references to Pearl Harbor and Adolf Hitler Berlin.
at the beginning of Chapter 3. The Japanese aerial
attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, killed

vii
Whole Book Before Reading

Focus Your Knowledge

• In an atlas or a book of United States road maps, find the state of Maryland. Then find Baltimore.
What is the relative size of Baltimore compared with other cities and towns in Maryland?

• Now look across the Chesapeake Bay to the eastern shore of Maryland. Try to find Salisbury and
Crisfield. What are their relative sizes? Where are they located in relation to Baltimore?

• Take a look at the Chesapeake Bay. How large is it? How does it affect the geography of Maryland?
To what other bodies of water is the bay connected?

• How many islands in the Chesapeake Bay can you find on your map? What do you think it might
be like to live on one of them? What might be some advantages to living on an island? What about
disadvantages?

The novel you are about to read takes place on a tiny island in the Chesapeake Bay during the 1940s.
In 1941, the United States was struggling to emerge from the Great Depression. Franklin Delano
Roosevelt was president. Across the Atlantic Ocean, World War II was raging. By the end of 1941, the
United States, too, would enter the war. How might these national and international events affect life
on a small island in the Chesapeake Bay?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 1 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I. Rass Island–Chapter 3 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Vocabulary Words to Know

Study the following words and definitions. You will meet these words in your reading. Be sure to jot
down in your word journal any other unknown words from the reading.

semblance—an outward appearance that is rankle—to annoy; to irritate

sometimes deceiving fervent—passionate; having deep emotions
delusions—false or exaggerated beliefs remonstrance—criticism or gentle scolding
strenuously—with great energy; laboriously petulant—peevish or rude
lugubriously—in an overly mournful discomfited—embarrassed; caught off
manner guard
affluent—having more than enough money
and goods

Things to Know
Here is some background information about this section of the book.

A terrapin is a type of North American turtle that can be eaten.

Progging is a regional word that means “foraging” or “searching.” Chesapeake Bay watermen use the
term when looking for oysters, crabs, or other shellfish.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) was president of the United States from 1933 to 1945. He was
elected to an unprecedented four terms. Roosevelt came into the presidency during the Great
Depression and died shortly before the end of World War II.

The Great Depression was a period of grave economic downturn in the United States. It officially
began with the stock market crash of October 1929 and continued throughout the 1930s.

The Methodist Church is a Protestant church that places great importance on social and personal
morals.

Pearl Harbor is an inlet on the southwestern coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. On December 7,
1941, the American naval fleet stationed there was targeted in a surprise attack by Japanese bomber
planes. Much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet was destroyed.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 2 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I. Rass Island–Chapter 3 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Questions to Think About

The following questions will help you understand the meaning of what you read. You do not have to
write out the answers to these questions. Instead, look at them before you begin reading, and think
about them while you are reading.

1. What in the narrator’s past has caused her not to like Rass Island for much of her life?

2. Why, in the first chapter, does the narrator say that neither she nor her sister could stay on the
island?

3. What is the relationship between Louise and Call in the summer of 1941? How do they treat
each other?

4. Why does Louise tell the story of her birth and Caroline’s? What meaning does this story have
for Louise?

5. How does Louise appear to feel about her twin? Why?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 3 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I. Rass Island–Chapter 3 During Reading

Build Your Vocabulary

Read the sentences below. On the line, write your definition of the word in bold type. Then, on
another sheet of paper, use that word in a new sentence of your own.

1. “It is the excess of snowball bushes that lends a semblance of green to every yard.”
semblance: _______________________________________________________________

2. “At thirteen I was tall and large boned, with delusions of beauty and romance.”
delusions: ________________________________________________________________

3. “He worked on other men’s boats as strenuously as his slowly healing body would let him,
eking out a meager living for himself and his widowed mother.”
strenuously: ______________________________________________________________

4. “Within a few weeks it was lugubriously out of tune.”

lugubriously: _____________________________________________________________

5. “The rest, children of the island’s slightly more affluent, paid fifty cents a lesson.”
affluent: _________________________________________________________________

6. “I was proud of my sister, but that year, something began to rankle beneath the pride.”
rankle: __________________________________________________________________

7. “Old Joshua’s stamp remained upon us—Sunday school and Sunday service morning and
evening, and on Wednesday night prayer meeting where the more fervent would stand to
witness to the Lord’s mercies of the preceding week . . .”
fervent: _________________________________________________________________

8. “There was no remonstrance for having broken the Fourth Commandment.”

remonstrance: ____________________________________________________________

9. “At six, Grandma woke, hungry and petulant.”

petulant: ________________________________________________________________

10. “Mr. Rice cleared his throat. . . . He was clearly discomfited by my behavior.”
discomfited: ______________________________________________________________

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 4 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I. Rass Island–Chapter 3 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Multiple Choice
Circle the letter of the best answer to each question.

1. For how many years does the narrator say 6. How does Louise describe herself as a
the Bradshaws have lived in the village on newborn baby?
Rass? a. fussy and weak, like a newborn kitten
a. for nearly 50 years b. cold and motherless
b. for more than 100 years c. delicate and sickly
c. for more than 200 years
7. How does Louise describe herself in the
2. How old is the narrator in the summer of photo when she and Caroline are one and
1941? a half?
a. fifteen a. like a fat dark shadow
b. fourteen b. golden and glowing with laughter
c. thirteen c. sulky and scarred by chicken pox
3. What is the age difference between Call 8. Who persuades Caroline’s parents that she
and the narrator? should have voice lessons?
a. Call is one year older than she is. a. the piano teacher from Crisfield
b. She is one year older than Call. b. Mr. Rice
c. They are just one month apart in age. c. the college professor in Salisbury
4. Why is Call willing to go crabbing with a 9. Why is Louise not supposed to be listening
girl? to the radio when she hears about Pearl
a. because there is no man in his family to Harbor?
take him a. because it is the Sabbath
b. because he is in love with the narrator b. because her parents are sleeping
c. because he is too fearful to go out in c. because Caroline is trying to practice
the bay with the other men the piano
5. What does the narrator’s mother always 10. Why is Louise disgusted by Caroline at the
put in her she-crab soup that makes the school Christmas concert?
grandmother complain? a. because she is smiling so smugly when
a. tinned milk the audience applauds her
b. red chile peppers b. because she is pretending to cry to get
c. sherry Mr. Rice’s pity
c. because she is flirting with Call

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 5 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I. Rass Island–Chapter 3 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Short Answer
Write a short answer for each question.

1. In the opening chapter of the book, when does the narrator say she will go to Rass and fetch
her mother?

2. How does the narrator describe her first glimpse of the island from the ferry?

3. Why does each waterman’s boat have a washtub on board?

4. How does the narrator describe Call when he is fourteen?

5. What “defect” in Call’s character does the narrator feel she must try to correct?

6. What does the narrator read that offers her a “porthole on the world” in the summer of 1941?

7. With what do the narrator and Call nearly fill their bucket?

8. Why does Louise say that she and Caroline would not have been born if her father had not
been wounded in France in 1918?

9. Why does Louise “treasure the thought” of her first few minutes of life?

10. In what way does Louise say that Caroline has “diminished” her since they were two years old?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 6 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I. Rass Island–Chapter 3 After Reading

Deepen Your Understanding

One of the most important themes in Jacob Have I Loved involves sibling rivalry. Louise often
struggles with the powerful negative emotions she feels for her twin, Caroline. Caroline always seems
to be at the center of attention. Louise says that she “treasures” the first few minutes of her life
before Caroline was born.

In the first few chapters of the novel, how does Katherine Paterson convey the complex feelings that
Louise has for Caroline? Look at the language that describes Louise’s emotions about her twin. What
images in the book reinforce the differences between the two girls? Give examples from the text to
support your thoughts.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 7 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

II. Chapters 4–6 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Vocabulary Words to Know

Study the following words and definitions. You will meet these words in your reading. Be sure to jot
down in your word journal any other unknown words from the reading.
caricature—an exaggeration of a particular feigned—pretended
feature or characteristic rivulet—a small stream
precariously—dangerously exultation—great joy or sense of triumph
melancholy—sadness; depression allusion—an indirect reference
lavishly—richly; with great abundance parasites—things that depend on others in
delegation—a group of people who have order to live, giving nothing in return
been chosen to represent others

Things to Know
Here is some background information about this section of the book.

Tonging involves using a pair of long-handled tongs (a grasping tool) to pick oysters from the
bottom of a pond or bay.

Cain was the son of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman described in the Bible. He murdered
his brother, Abel.

The Scriptures are another term for the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

Captain Marvel was a popular comic-book superhero in the 1940s.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 8 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

II. Chapters 4–6 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Questions to Think About

The following questions will help you understand the meaning of what you read. You do not have to
write out the answers to these questions. Instead, look at them before you begin reading, and think
about them while you are reading.

1. What sort of person is Louise’s grandmother? What role does she play in the family?

2. How do men’s and women’s roles on Rass differ? How does each group relate to the water?

3. How does the arrival of the Captain on the island change life for Louise? For Call?

4. By how many different names is the narrator called? How does she feel about each name?

5. Why does Louise feel that she must “escape” from Rass? How does she try to make this
happen?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 9 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

II. Chapters 4–6 During Reading

Build Your Vocabulary

Read the sentences below. On the line, write your definition of the word in bold type. Then, on
another sheet of paper, use that word in a new sentence of your own.

1. “I had clearly gotten the best of her, so I sobered to an elaborate caricature of humility.”
caricature: _______________________________________________________________

2. “Momma pointed out her two boxes, which my father and I loaded precariously onto the
wagon.”
precariously: _____________________________________________________________

3. “As a child I thought nothing of it, but when I became an adolescent, I began to read the
verses on the tombstones with a certain pleasant melancholy.”
melancholy: ______________________________________________________________

4. “Gradually, the people of Rass built one from ancient memory lavishly cemented with rumor.”
lavishly: _________________________________________________________________

5. “Some of the islanders thought a delegation should be sent to ask the old man straight out
who he was . . .”
delegation: _______________________________________________________________

6. “The man feigned surprise. ‘I though everyone on this island knew my name.’ ”
feigned: _________________________________________________________________

7. “Even as I yelled, I could feel a tiny rivulet of satisfaction invading the flood of my anger.”
rivulet: __________________________________________________________________

8. “Always there were two feelings in the dream—a wild exultation that now I was free of her
and . . . terrible guilt.”
exultation: _______________________________________________________________

9. “It had all the elements—romance, sadness, an allusion to the war, and faithful love.”
allusion: _________________________________________________________________

10. “ . . . I could remember, even if the laws of respect kept me silent, that I was a contributing
member of the household in which she and Caroline were little more than parasites.”
parasites: ________________________________________________________________

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 10 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

II. Chapters 4–6 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Multiple Choice
Circle the letter of the best answer to each question.

1. Why does Louise hide the book about 6. What do all the old people on the island
pirates from her grandmother? agree about Hiram Wallace in his youth?
a. Her grandmother is terrified of pirates. a. All of the young women on the island
b. Her grandmother would be upset that hoped to marry him.
Louise is reading about the water. b. Since he was not a very good waterman,
c. Reading is against her grandmother’s his family did not earn much money.
religious beliefs. c. He was the only college graduate on the
2. Why does Grandma suggest that Louise go to whole island.
meet her mother and Caroline at the ferry? 7. Why do Louise and Call go to the Wallace
a. She thinks there may be heavy groceries cottage after the stranger moves in?
that Louise can help carry. a. Louise wants prove the stranger is a spy.
b. She wants Louise to tell them some b. They are trying to return the cat that
important news about the family’s boat. they found near the cottage.
c. She thinks that Caroline may need some c. Call is hoping that he will be able to
help walking home because she is sick. work with the man on his fishing boat.
3. How does Louise describe the stranger 8. Why is Louise disappointed after she and
who gets off the ferry? Call visit the Captain for the first time?
a. He is tall and wiry, with gray hair. a. He tells them that he is Hiram Wallace.
b. He has a stocky build and long white b. The Captain doesn’t laugh at her jokes.
hair. c. The Captain prefers Call to her, and she
c. He is nervous and slight, with hair that fears losing Call’s friendship.
is graying at the temples. 9. Why does Louise say she hates Caroline?
4. Why do the islanders bury their dead in a. Caroline tells Louise she is dirty.
their front yards? b. Caroline always ends up with Louise’s
a. because the Methodist religion requires it crabbing money.
b. because the Rass Island Cemetery is full c. Caroline will never fight with her.
c. because there is no high land to use as a 10. Why does Louise start to keep some of her
cemetery crabbing money for herself?
5. For how long has the Wallace place been a. She is tired of supporting the family by
deserted when the stranger moves into it? herself.
a. twenty years b. She wants to save for boarding school.
b. thirty years c. She wants to buy a boat.
c. forty years

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 11 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

II. Chapters 4–6 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Short Answer
Write a short answer for each question.

1. According to Louise, how do the women of Rass Island feel about the water?

2. Why does Louise say, “I suppose I knew that there was no future for me on Rass”?

3. After telling Louise that Caroline is not strong enough to carry groceries home, how does
Grandma say Louise is looking at her?

4. What does Caroline do at the ferry dock that embarrasses Louise?

5. What does Grandma remember about the Wallace land in earlier days?

6. According to Louise, how does the Wallace land look now?

7. Why was the young Hiram Wallace the butt of all the watermen’s jokes?

8. When Louise and Call go into the Wallace place to have tea with the strange man, what makes
Call laugh for the first time?

9. What does Louise often dream about Caroline?

10. What does Louise wish that Call would say about her poetry?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 12 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

II. Chapters 4–6 After Reading

Deepen Your Understanding

“I knew, of course I knew, that the Captain was not a spy, but as I read, it felt as though I were
swallowing an icicle.”

In Jacob Have I Loved, Katherine Paterson uses similes like the one above. Similes help to paint
certain pictures in the reader’s mind. A simile is a comparison in which the word like or as is used.

Looking back through the chapters you have read so far, choose at least three similes that are
especially effective. Why do you think the author makes these particular comparisons? What images
do they conjure up? How do these similes add to your understanding of the story?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 13 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

III. Chapters 7–10 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Vocabulary Words to Know

Study the following words and definitions. You will meet these words in your reading. Be sure to jot
down in your word journal any other unknown words from the reading.

deficient—lacking; below a normal level or aberrations—behaviors that are not

standard considered normal or usual
futile—useless; not effective refurbished—renovated; freshened up
unproscribed—not forbidden or prohibited infernal—hellish
interloper—an intruder undaunted—fearless in spite of danger or
saboteur—someone who takes harmful or trouble
destructive action against a government befuddled—confused

Things to Know
Here is some background information about this section of the book.

A hurricane is a storm that includes wind speeds of at least 74 miles per hour. It usually also brings
heavy rain, thunder, and lightning. Although hurricanes are tropical storms, they sometimes move
north into more temperate regions. In the southeastern United States, they most often occur in late
August through September.

According to the Bible, Moses was the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of Egypt, where
they had been slaves. Moses also delivered the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments to
the people.

Paregoric is a medicinal mixture that is made from opium. It was often used as a painkiller in
American households in the 1940s.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 14 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

III. Chapters 7–10 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Questions to Think About

The following questions will help you understand the meaning of what you read. You do not have to
write out the answers to these questions. Instead, look at them before you begin reading, and think
about them while you are reading.

1. By the summer of 1942, how is Louise and Call’s relationship beginning to change?

2. How is adolescence affecting Louise’s state of mind? How is she feeling about various friends
and family members?

3. What is Louise’s attitude toward religion by the end of the summer? How does this differ from
her attitude the year before?

4. What role does Caroline play in Louise’s life over the summer? How does Louise react to this?

5. What new perspectives—about people in her life as well as about Rass—does the storm of
1942 give Louise?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 15 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

III. Chapters 7–10 During Reading

Build Your Vocabulary

Read the sentences below. On the line, write your definition of the word in bold type. Then, on
another sheet of paper, use that word in a new sentence of your own.

1. “Both Call and the Captain seemed to regard me as mentally deficient, since I couldn’t
appreciate their marvelous humor.”
deficient: ________________________________________________________________

2. “He took another futile swing before he answered.”

futile: ___________________________________________________________________

3. “Was it because it was so wonderful to discover something on this island that was free—
something unproscribed by God, Moses, or the Methodist conference?”
unproscribed: _____________________________________________________________

4. “I no longer wanted the Captain to be a Nazi spy or an interloper.”

interloper: _______________________________________________________________

5. “That was far more wonderful than being a saboteur to be caught or an imposter to be
exposed.”
saboteur: ________________________________________________________________

6. “But despite these aberrations he seemed to be accepted as an islander, simply because he had
called Auntie Braxton ‘Trudy’ . . .”
aberrations: ______________________________________________________________

7. “The Captain made both me and Call sit down in his clean, refurbished living room.”
refurbished: ______________________________________________________________

8. “I lured those fool cats right to me and into those infernal sacks.”
infernal: _________________________________________________________________

9. “ ‘So?’ Caroline was undaunted. ‘We tame them.’ ”

undaunted: ______________________________________________________________

10. “They laughed and imitated the befuddled women at the door.”
befuddled: _______________________________________________________________

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 16 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

III. Chapters 7–10 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Multiple Choice
Circle the letter of the best answer to each question.

1. According to Louise, why doesn’t Call want 6. What does Louise see when she looks
her to go with him to see the Captain in through the screen at Auntie Braxton’s house?
the summer of 1942? a. a body lying on the floor
a. Call wants to have the Captain’s b. a German spy
friendship all to himself. c. a dead cat
b. The Captain doesn’t like women.
7. How do the people of Rass finally realize
c. Call thinks that it would be breaking
that the Captain is Hiram Wallace?
one of the Ten Commandments.
a. Louise finds a letter addressed to Hiram
2. How does Louise sum up her summer in Wallace on his kitchen table.
1942? b. He calls Auntie Braxton Trudy.
a. It is the most exciting summer of her life. c. Grandma recognizes him.
b. It is the first time in her life that she has
8. How does Caroline manage to give Auntie
really enjoyed Caroline.
Braxton’s cats away?
c. Nothing goes right for her.
a. She lures the cats to the schoolhouse
3. Where does Louise run to when she needs and lets each student take one home.
to be alone with her thoughts? b. She drugs the cats and then takes them
a. to the fig tree her mother planted to each house on the street.
b. to the stump at the tip of the island c. Captain Billy takes them to the
c. to her skiff, so that she can pole herself mainland and donates them.
out onto the water
9. How does Louise’s father protect his boat
4. What does the letter from Lyrics Unlimited during the big storm of 1942?
urge Louise to do? a. He sinks it.
a. to send in twenty-five dollars b. He drags it up onto the shore.
b. to go to New York City for an audition c. He ties it with four lines instead of two.
c. to send in a tape-recording of the
10. How does Grandma respond when the
music for her song
Captain looks through the Bible?
5. What does the Captain do when the orange a. She tells him her favorite passage is the
tomcat knocks down a teacup with its tail? one about Jacob and Esau.
a. He swears. b. She asks him to be careful, because it is
b. He laughs. a family bible.
c. He asks Caroline to teach the cat c. She says that a heathen should not be
manners. reading a holy book like the Bible.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 17 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

III. Chapters 7–10 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Short Answer
Write a short answer for each question.

1. How does Louise try to trick the Captain when Call tells him that he cannot hammer on a Sunday?

2. Why does Louise say that she is “sold into slavery” during the summer of 1942?

3. How does Louise describe her spiritual health that summer?

4. How do Call and Louise react when they hear the Captain swear?

5. What does Louise realize some time after the Captain tells her to run to the ferry dock to get
help for Auntie Braxton?

6. What makes the Captain think that Auntie Braxton has more money than most of the other
islanders?

7. What does Louise offer to do in order to save all of Auntie Braxton’s cats from being killed?

8. How does Louise feel when Caroline gets involved in cleaning Auntie Braxton’s house and
giving away the cats?

9. What does Louise observe about people’s behavior when they are facing a disaster?

10. On the night of the big storm, what does Louise promise herself while the Captain is reading
from the Bible?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 18 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

III. Chapters 7–10 After Reading

Deepen Your Understanding

Religion plays a very important part in the lives of the people of Rass Island. Louise, the narrator,
often mentions the Methodist Church when she describes the social customs of her family and her
neighbors. There are many references to the Bible in the novel. In fact, characters sometimes recite
“Scripture” passages by heart.

Based on your reading so far, how does Louise appear to respond to the established religion on Rass?
Do her religious views begin to change as she grows older? Does she see religion as a positive or
negative influence in her life? How does Louise feel about her spiritual state at this point in her life?
Give examples from the text to support your ideas.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 19 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I V. C h a p t e r s 1 1 – 1 3 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Vocabulary Words to Know

Study the following words and definitions. You will meet these words in your reading. Be sure to jot
down in your word journal any other unknown words from the reading.

maneuvering—handling something in a disembodied—detached from a body;

clever or an expert manner unattached
raucous—harsh; unpleasantly loud placidly—in a calm, serene manner
capricious—unpredictable; likely to change adamant—unwilling to yield or change
at will one’s mind
thwart—a boat seat where a rower can sit propriety—standard of socially correct
relegated—assigned; banished behavior
scrutiny—close examination

Things to Know
Here is some background information about this section of the book.

Lockjaw, or tetanus, is a serious infectious disease caused by bacteria. Although people are now
commonly immunized against tetanus, this was not the case in the 1940s.

Typhoid, also known as typhoid fever, is a contagious, sometimes fatal disease caused by bacteria.
Typhoid can now be prevented through immunization, but this was not an available option in the
1940s.

According to the book of Genesis in the Bible, Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt.
He eventually found favor with the Pharaoh and rose to a high position in the government.

Turning a boat to starboard means turning it to the right. (Turning it to the left would be turning it
to port.)

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 20 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I V. C h a p t e r s 1 1 – 1 3 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Questions to Think About

The following questions will help you understand the meaning of what you read. You do not have to
write out the answers to these questions. Instead, look at them before you begin reading, and think
about them while you are reading.

1. What is the effect of the storm on Rass Island? What is the long-term outlook for Rass?

2. In the aftermath of the storm, what emotional changes does Louise go through?

3. Why is Louise so interested in her own hands as well as the hands of other people in her life?
What does she “see” in these hands?

4. How is the behavior of Louise’s grandmother beginning to change? What effect does this have
on her family?

5. How involved is Caroline in Louise’s life during the summer and fall of 1942? How does
Louise feel about this?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 21 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I V. C h a p t e r s 1 1 – 1 3 During Reading

Build Your Vocabulary

Read the sentences below. On the line, write your definition of the word in bold type. Then, on
another sheet of paper, use that word in a new sentence of your own.

1. “We could pole the skiff down to his house, maneuvering around the debris as we would ice
floes.”
maneuvering: _____________________________________________________________

2. “My reverie was punctured by a raucous cackling and complaining from a tiny house floating
past us.”
raucous: _________________________________________________________________

3. “The storm had been capricious. Some roofs were gone, while the next door house was not
only intact but the fence and shed as well.”
capricious: _______________________________________________________________

4. “I shipped the pole and sat down on the thwart opposite him.”
thwart: __________________________________________________________________

5. “If Caroline had been relegated to the devil, she probably would have tamed him as well.”
relegated: ________________________________________________________________

6. “Her fingers were as long and gracefully shaped as those on the disembodied hands in the
Ponds ad.”
disembodied: _____________________________________________________________

7. “ ‘Oh, Wheeze,’ she said, placidly helping herself to more lotion. ‘Don’t be selfish.’”
placidly: _________________________________________________________________

8. “We were the Captain’s friends, we would take him in. But my grandmother was adamant.”
adamant: ________________________________________________________________

9. “It was up to Call to stop her. He would, I was sure—he and his tight little sense of propriety.”
propriety: ________________________________________________________________

10. “I pretended to study a torn cuticle to miss his scrutiny.”

scrutiny: _________________________________________________________________

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 22 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I V. C h a p t e r s 1 1 – 1 3 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Multiple Choice
Circle the letter of the best answer to each question.

1. How does Louise describe the weather on 6. What happens when Louise’s father invites
the day after the big storm? the Captain to stay with them for awhile?
a. It is the clearest day of the summer. a. Caroline gives up her room for him.
b. It is warm and misty, like a soft shawl. b. The Captain refuses to stay with them.
c. It is breezy and invigorating, with c. Grandma says that there is no room for
laughter in the air. an extra person in the house.
2. Where do Louise and the Captain find her 7. For how many days does the Captain live
skiff? with the Bradshaws?
a. underwater, but still tied to the trees a. seven days
b. by the tip of the island b. five days
c. bobbing on the water near the dock c. three days
3. How does Louise feel about her neighbors 8. On the second day after the storm, what
on the morning after the storm? does Grandma taunt Louise for?
a. She feels deeply sorry for them all. a. She makes fun of Louise’s efforts to
b. She is angry they were ill-prepared. make her hands more beautiful.
c. She loves them all. b. She laughs at Louise’s church clothes.
c. She taunts Louise for being in love with
4. As she poles her boat to the Captain’s
the Captain.
house after the storm, what causes Louise
to “make a funny squeak” in her throat? 9. How does Caroline respond when Louise
a. She can’t believe that the Lewises’ smashes the bottle of hand lotion?
chickens are floating by in their coop. a. She asks Louise if she has gone crazy.
b. She is watching the ferry boat sink, just b. Her eyes widen and fill with tears.
as her grandmother has predicted. c. She runs and tells the Captain.
c. She sees the Captain’s house is gone.
10. When the Captain says that marrying
5. On the morning after the storm, what Auntie Braxton is a crazy idea, why does
information does the Captain repeat that Louise feel “cold all over”?
bothers Louise intensely? a. She is disappointed that the Captain
a. He says Caroline has been the biggest will not marry Auntie Braxton.
help of all in cleaning up the mess. b. She is afraid that the Captain will
b. He says there used to be cows in a marry Auntie Braxton after all.
pasture on his parents’ land. c. She thinks that the Captain is making
c. He says his house has always been the fun of Auntie Braxton.
biggest one on the island.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 23 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I V. C h a p t e r s 1 1 – 1 3 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Short Answer
Write a short answer for each question.

1. On the day after the storm, what is the state of the Bradshaws’ house and yard?

2. How do the three trees in the Bradshaws’ yard look after the storm?

3. What does Louise imagine as she poles her skiff through the water with the Captain?

4. What does Louise do when the Captain looks as if he might cry?

5. While the Captain is living with the Bradshaw family, what is there about the Captain that
Louise is “obsessed with”?

6. What does Louise think when she looks at her dirty, ragged fingernails and compares them
with the hands in the Ponds advertisement?

7. How does Louise say Caroline looks when Caroline ties her blue scarf around her hair?

8. What happens when Louise gets angry with Caroline and leaves to go to her stump?

9. Why is Louise calm when she considers living the rest of her life as a harmless “crazy person”?

10. As the Captain escorts Auntie Braxton off the ferry, what does Caroline say when she sees
Auntie’s large corsage?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 24 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

I V. C h a p t e r s 1 1 – 1 3 After Reading

Deepen Your Understanding

The poet John Donne once wrote, “No man is an island . . . .” In this famous poem, Donne was
using an island in a metaphorical sense. A metaphor compares one person or thing to another thing
without using like or as. In the quotation above, Donne was using an island as a metaphor for an
isolated human being.

Louise Bradshaw lives on Rass Island in Jacob Have I Loved. What do you think the island might
symbolize in this novel? What other “island” symbols can be found in the book? Does Rass Island in
Katherine Paterson’s novel have any similarity to the island in Donne’s poem?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 25 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

V. C h a p t e r s 1 4 – 1 6 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Vocabulary Words to Know

Study the following words and definitions. You will meet these words in your reading. Be sure to jot
down in your word journal any other unknown words from the reading.

exuberant—high-spirited; full of enthusiasm prophecies—predictions that are religiously

unperturbed—undisturbed; unshaken inspired
destitute—extremely poor meager—thin; scant; skimpy
perfunctorily—as a matter of routine inanities—shallow, pointless remarks
conniving—scheming; secret planning extricated—removed from a difficult or
jeopardy—danger tangled situation

Things to Know
Here is some background information about this section of the book.

The Shadow was a very popular radio show in the 1940s.

A U-boat is a German submarine.

Gas rationing was imposed by the U.S. government during World War II to conserve fuel for the
war effort overseas.

Jacob and Esau were twin brothers in the Bible. Although Esau was the firstborn son, it was Jacob
(with some scheming on the part of his mother) who inherited his father’s kingdom and received
the blessing of God.

D day occurred on June 6, 1944. On this day, Allied forces began their invasion of German-occupied
France and helped to turn the tide of World War II.

Hiroshima is a port city in Japan. It was devastated by an American atomic bomb on August 6,
1945, on the orders of President Truman. A second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of
Nagasaki on August 9. Five days later, Japan surrendered.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 26 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

V. C h a p t e r s 1 4 – 1 6 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Questions to Think About

The following questions will help you understand the meaning of what you read. You do not have to
write out the answers to these questions. Instead, look at them before you begin reading, and think
about them while you are reading.

1. Why does Louise describe herself as “miserable” during the winter of 1942–1943?

2. How is Call changing? How does this affect his relationships with both Louise and Caroline?

3. Why does Louise believe that God hates her? What effect does this have on her?

4. How is Louise’s relationship with her parents changing?

5. In what ways does Louise go against the island’s social standards and customs?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 27 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

V. C h a p t e r s 1 4 – 1 6 During Reading

Build Your Vocabulary

Read the sentences below. On the line, write your definition of the word in bold type. Then, on
another sheet of paper, use that word in a new sentence of your own.

1. “I . . . steeled myself for the cackle from Auntie Braxton and the laugh, which reminded me of
an exuberant tuba, that would come from the Captain.”
exuberant: _______________________________________________________________

2. “Grandma continued unperturbed. ‘Ever see how she looks at him?’”

unperturbed: _____________________________________________________________

3. “His mother and grandmother were destitute, and my father offered to take him aboard the
Portia Sue as an oyster culler.”
destitute: ________________________________________________________________

4. “He was invited perfunctorily every Sunday, but he seemed to know that he oughtn’t to come
and always managed an excuse.”
perfunctorily: _____________________________________________________________

5. “It was her conniving that helped Jacob steal the blessing from his brother.”
conniving: _______________________________________________________________

6. “. . . four families whose houses were in jeopardy moved to the mainland.”

jeopardy: ________________________________________________________________

7. “When she launched into prophecies of eternal damnation, he told her that God was my
judge, not they.”
prophecies: _______________________________________________________________

8. “Toward the end of the meal, my father, turning to me as though peace had brought with it
some great change to our meager fortunes, said, ‘Well, Louise, what will you do now?’”
meager: _________________________________________________________________

9. “They were exchanging inanities about the size and terrors of New York . . .”
inanities: ________________________________________________________________

10. “As it was, I extricated myself as quickly as I could from them and made my way, not home,
but back to the crab house . . .”
extricated: _______________________________________________________________

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 28 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

V. C h a p t e r s 1 4 – 1 6 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Multiple Choice
Circle the letter of the best answer to each question.

1. During the month of November 1942, how 6. What does the Captain offer to do with the
does Louise say she copes with her misery? money he has inherited from Trudy?
a. by writing song lyrics a. He proposes sending Louise to
b. by picking fights with Caroline boarding school in Crisfield.
c. by reading books b. He proposes sending Caroline to music
school in Baltimore.
2. What is one of the results of the Bradshaw
c. He proposes buying Call his own boat.
family’s loss of income after the big storm?
a. Caroline must give up music lessons. 7. Why does Grandma recite the Bible
b. Louise has to give all of the money she passage “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have
has saved for school to her parents. I hated” to Louise?
c. The family can no longer afford to buy a. She is trying to make Louise feel better.
Grandma’s medicine. b. She wants to hurt Louise’s feelings.
c. She is trying to show Louise that Caroline
3. Why does Louise call Caroline a liar when
will not always get her own way.
they have dinner at the home of Auntie
Braxton and the Captain? 8. How does Louise describe herself during
a. because Caroline tells the Captain that the winter she spends on her father’s boat?
Louise has a crush on him a. She says that she is like a good oyster.
b. because Caroline says that Louise b. She calls herself an oyster already dead.
doesn’t think anything is funny c. She feels like chopped crab bait.
c. because Caroline tells Call that Louise
9. What happens when Louise takes the high-
doesn’t like him
school graduation exams?
4. What does Grandma say after Auntie a. She passes with the highest marks ever
Braxton’s funeral? recorded from Rass.
a. The Captain has killed Auntie Braxton. b. She barely passes school.
b. Now she can marry the Captain herself. c. She passes, but Caroline’s marks are higher.
c. The Captain should give up Auntie
10. When Call comes home on leave, what
Braxton’s house.
does he tell Louise?
5. What does Call do in February 1943? a. Auntie Braxton’s old house has been
a. He enlists in the army. destroyed by flooding.
b. He drops out of school. b. He has dreamed about settling down
c. He asks Caroline to marry him. on Rass with her.
c. The island will be covered by water.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 29 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

V. C h a p t e r s 1 4 – 1 6 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Short Answer
Write a short answer for each question.

1. Why does Louise wish to have “a bright blue tortoise” like the one on Uncas’s chest in The Last
of the Mohicans?

2. When Call asks the Captain whether he didn’t kill himself while driving in France, what effect
does it have on Auntie Braxton and the others?

3. Why does Louise run from Auntie Braxton’s house when the Captain puts his arm around her
and asks what is wrong?

4. Why does the Captain often ask Caroline to sing?

5. Why does Mr. Bradshaw send Louise and Caroline up to their room on the evening after
Auntie Braxton’s funeral service?

6. How does working with Mr. Bradshaw affect Call during the winter of 1943?

7. How do Louise’s feelings about her twin show when she plays cards with Caroline and the
Captain?

8. When the Captain comes to the Bradshaws’ house and begins to talk about Trudy’s legacy,
what does Louise think he is going to suggest?

9. What does Louise conclude after she looks up the passage about Jacob and Esau in the Bible?

10. When Call returns from the navy and visits the Captain with Louise, what is it that makes
Louise say, “My body understood long before my mind did”?

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STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

V. C h a p t e r s 1 4 – 1 6 After Reading

Deepen Your Understanding

One of the most important elements in any novel is its characters. These are the people who “live”
inside the book and help the story unfold. Main characters are the “key players” in the plot. Minor
characters play slightly less important roles. They add color, depth, and intrigue to the story.

Katherine Paterson has created many vivid characters in Jacob Have I Loved in addition to the main
character, Louise. Describe the following characters. Include reasons why the character behaves in a
certain way. Give specific examples from the book to support your description:

Grandmother

the Captain

Call

Mrs. Bradshaw

Mr. Bradshaw

Caroline

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STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

VI. Chapters 17–20 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Vocabulary Words to Know

Study the following words and definitions. You will meet these words in your reading. Be sure to jot
down in your word journal any other unknown words from the reading.

saucily—in a bold, flippant manner denominational—relating to a specific class

contentious—tending to argue or pick quarrels of church or religious order
spectrum—a wide range subsistence—food and other supplies
conventional—traditional; unoriginal necessary for survival
incomprehension—lack of understanding sacrament—a religious act that symbolizes
iota—a very tiny amount something spiritual
midwifery—a profession that involves
helping women in childbirth

Things to Know
Here is some background information about this section of the book.

A baby in a breech position during childbirth will not emerge head first, which is the safest and
most common position. A breech birth can be life-threatening for the baby.

La Bohème is a world-famous opera.

The Appalachians are a North American mountain chain. They extend from northern Alabama in
the United States to eastern Quebec in Canada. Certain Appalachian communities in the southern
United States were extremely poor and isolated in the 1940s.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 32 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

VI. Chapters 17–20 Before Reading

Focus Your Reading

Questions to Think About

The following questions will help you understand the meaning of what you read. You do not have to
write out the answers to these questions. Instead, look at them before you begin reading, and think
about them while you are reading.

1. How does Louise gain a greater understanding of her mother and the life her mother has
chosen?

2. Why does Louise say that she needs to “build herself as a soul”?

3. What role does the Captain play in helping Louise to “escape” her life on the island? What role
do her parents play?

4. What features about Truitt and Louise’s life there help her to achieve a sense of fulfillment?

5. How is Louise able to make peace with her past and “the long, long shadow” of her twin?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 33 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

VI. Chapters 17–20 During Reading

Build Your Vocabulary

Read the sentences below. On the line, write your definition of the word in bold type. Then, on
another sheet of paper, use that word in a new sentence of your own.

1. “She grinned at him saucily. . . . ‘I guess you wish now you was as young as me, eh, Hiram
Wallace?’”
saucily: __________________________________________________________________

2. “‘It is better,’ I recited piously, ‘to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house with a
contentious woman.’”
contentious: ______________________________________________________________

3. “Watching her pinched face, I went through a spectrum of emotions.”

spectrum: ________________________________________________________________

4. “‘I was a bit of a romantic. I wanted to get away from what I thought of as a very
conventional small town and try my wings.’”
conventional: _____________________________________________________________

5. “She turned and looked at me, smiling at my incomprehension.”

incomprehension: _________________________________________________________

6. “I had clung to them, to Rass, yes, even to my grandmother, afraid that if I loosened my
fingers an iota, I would find myself once more cold and clean in a forgotten basket.”
iota: ____________________________________________________________________

7. “I transferred to the University of Kentucky and into the nursing school, which had a good
course in midwifery.”
midwifery: _______________________________________________________________

8. “The truth, of course, is that the ailment crosses denominational lines.”

denominational: ___________________________________________________________

9. “Most of them only see the ungiving soil from which a man must wrestle his subsistence and
the barriers that shut him out from the world.”
subsistence: ______________________________________________________________

10. “The father crossed himself, . . . and hurried out to report the sacrament to his wife.”
sacrament: _______________________________________________________________

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 34 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

VI. Chapters 17–20 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Multiple Choice
Circle the letter of the best answer to each question.

1. Why doesn’t Louise attend the wedding of 6. How does Mrs. Bradshaw respond when
Call and Caroline in New York? Louise asks why she ever came to Rass?
a. Her father asks her to stay behind and a. She says she met Mr. Bradshaw at a party,
take care of the crabbing business. fell in love, and followed him to Rass.
b. Caroline asks her not to come. b. She says it seemed romantic to be a
c. Louise chooses to stay behind and care schoolteacher on an island.
for Grandma. c. She says it was a great mistake in her life.
2. What does Louise learn from Grandma 7. When Louise asks her mother if she will
while the others are at Caroline’s wedding? miss her as much as she misses Caroline,
a. Grandma tells her that she has hidden a what does Mrs. Bradshaw say?
great deal of money in the house. a. She will miss them both equally.
b. Louise learns that Grandma loved the b. She might miss Caroline more, because
Captain when she was a girl. Caroline has needed more support.
c. Grandma tells Louise that she is not c. She will miss Louise more.
really a twin after all.
8. Why does Louise’s college advisor suggest
3. What does Louise answer when the Captain that she switch to nursing school?
asks her what she really wants to do? a. The war has created a need for nurses.
a. She says that she wants to be a writer. b. Louise’s grades are not high enough for
b. She says that she wants to be a teacher. medical school.
c. She says that she wants to be a doctor. c. Returning war veterans will take the
available places at medical school.
4. How do Louise’s parents look when they
get off the ferry after Caroline’s wedding? 9. What does Louise say that a mountain-
a. tired and sad locked valley is like?
b. happy a. a baby’s cradle
c. anxious b. the bottom of the sea
c. an island
5. What does Grandma do when Louise gives
her a Bible passage to read about a 10. Why is Louise glad that her father and
“contentious woman”? Joseph get to meet at her wedding?
a. She hits Louise on the head with the a. Her father dies shortly after that.
Bible. b. She cannot marry a man her father
b. She begins to cry and whine. doesn’t like.
c. She tells Louise that she never wants to c. She hopes Joseph can take over her
see her again on Rass. father’s business someday.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 35 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

VI. Chapters 17–20 During Reading

Check Your Understanding

Short Answer
Write a short answer for each question.

1. How does Caroline try to encourage her grandmother to feel more friendly toward the
Captain?

2. How does the Captain respond when Louise tries to tell Grandma that he never did chop
down the mast of his father’s boat?

3. When Louise starts to tell the Captain that she had hoped to marry Call at one time, how does
he respond?

4. Why does Louise shiver when she sees her parents looking at each other with great affection?

5. What does her mother say when Louise cries, “Let me go. Let me leave!”

6. What is Louise’s plan when she transfers to the University of Kentucky?

7. According to Louise, what is the most serious health problem in the mountain region where
she lives?

8. How does Louise first meet the man she marries?

9. Whose funerals has Louise attended back on Rass since her nursing school days?

10. What does Louise predict about her newborn son?

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 36 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

VI. Chapters 17–20 After Reading

Deepen Your Understanding

“But where was I?” Louise once asks as she listens to the story of her birth. “When everyone was
working over Caroline, where was I?”

Throughout her childhood, Louise feels left out as her parents focus their attention on her twin
sister. In her teen years, she resents Caroline and tries to shut her out of her life. Yet, Louise cannot
seem to find happiness on her own. Angry and self-critical, she isolates herself and dreams of escape.

Over the course of this novel, how does Louise finally come to terms with Caroline? How does she
finally come to terms with herself and find her place in the world? Respond to these questions,
paying particular attention to the birth stories that are told near the start and at the finish of Jacob
Have I Loved. Be sure to use specific examples from the book to support your ideas.

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 37 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

Whole Book After Reading

End-of-Book Test
Circle the letter of the best answer to each question.

1. Early in the book, how does Louise respond 6. Who runs the Rass Island ferry?
when Call asks who she will marry? a. Captain Billy
a. She laughs and says she will never marry. b. Captain Otis
b. She says that she will marry him. c. Captain Hiram Wallace
c. She says that she won’t marry an islander.
7. When Louise and Call begin working for
2. Because her father has been slightly lamed the Captain for two hours every day, why
in World War I, what does Louise say he does the Captain stop offering them tea?
needs even more than a wife? a. It is against the Ten Commandments.
a. sons b. There is a shortage of tinned milk for
b. a housekeeper Call.
c. a physical therapist c. Call and Louise finally tell him that
they don’t like it.
3. Before the Christmas concert in 1941,
what does Caroline say when Louise tells 8. As the Captain and the other men lift
her that she is running away? Auntie Braxton onto the stretcher, what
a. She runs, crying, to tell their mother does the Captain say to her that makes the
what Louise is planning to do. other men “give one another funny looks”?
b. She tells her to go ahead and run. a. “We’ve got the tomcat for you, Trudy.”
c. She says that Louise can’t run away until b. “It’s all right, Trudy, it’s me, Hiram.”
morning; there is no ferry running. c. “Trudy, will you marry me?”
4. What does Louise fantasize about 9. What does Louise do to avoid seeing
President Franklin D. Roosevelt? Auntie Braxton’s cats being thrown out of
a. that he will give her a medal for bravery the Captain’s skiff?
b. that he will adopt her a. She stays on shore while the Captain
c. that he will invite her to write songs for and Call take the cats away.
the troops overseas b. She jumps overboard and swims ashore.
c. She closes her eyes and screams so that
5. Just around the time when Louise thinks
she can’t see or hear what is happening.
that the Captain may be a spy, what does
she read in the day-old Baltimore Sun? 10. How does Louise’s father know that a big
a. that there is a German U-boat storm is coming in the summer of 1942?
somewhere in the Chesapeake Bay a. He smells it and sees a rusty red sunset.
b. that a man named Hiram Wallace is b. Louise hears about it on the radio and
under suspicion of sabotage runs to tell him.
c. that eight German saboteurs have been c. He notices that all of the cows are lying
caught in the United States down in the pasture.
(continued)

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 38 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

STUDENT NAME ___________________________________________________ DATE__________________

Whole Book After Reading

End-of- Book Test (continued)

11. How old does Louise estimate the Captain 16. Why doesn’t Louise’s family take a holiday
is at the time of the big storm? when peace is declared in 1945?
a. at least 50 a. because there is crabbing work to do
b. at least 60 b. because Grandma won’t allow it
c. at least 70 c. because the Captain needs their help
fixing his dock
12. On the second day after the storm, what
does the Captain bring home to the 17. When the Captain spends Christmas with
Bradshaws’ house? Louise and her grandmother, what does
a. a pot full of crabs the Captain say to Louise after dinner?
b. the orange tomcat a. that he has always loved her
c. the island’s only cow grandmother
b. that he has always known that Louise
13. When the Captain brings Auntie Braxton
can do anything she wants
home to Rass from the hospital, what does
c. that he would like to help her go to
Louise see being unloaded off the ferry?
boarding school in Crisfield
a. a piano
b. a wheelchair 18. How does Louise react when she sees how
c. an automobile happy her parents are after their return
from Caroline’s wedding?
14. Why does Louise find it “ironic” to go to
a. She cries.
Auntie Braxton’s funeral at the church on
b. She grins from ear to ear.
Rass?
c. She shivers.
a. The Captain and Auntie Braxton have
not attended church for as long as 19. From which college does Louise graduate
anyone can remember. as a nurse-midwife?
b. The church is where the Captain and a. University of Maryland
Auntie Braxton have been married such b. University of Delaware
a short time ago. c. University of Kentucky
c. Auntie Braxton has said the church is
20. After the death of Louise’s father, where
her favorite place on the island.
does her mother plan to live?
15. Why does Louise say that people on the a. She plans to stay on Rass for the rest of
island may have been “a little afraid of her” her life.
in the fall of 1943? b. She is going to live with Louise and her
a. because she is a strange sight in men’s husband.
work clothes c. She is going to live with Caroline and
b. because she has violent outbursts Call.
c. because she asks them not to pray for her

© 2006 Saddleback Educational Publishing 39 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

 Answer Key
I. Rass Island–Chapter 3 2—“I was proud of my sister, but that year,
something began to rankle beneath the pride”;
Build Your Vocabulary Chapter 3—“I was disgusted to see her dimpled and
Wording and definitions may vary. Students may smiling . . . the same expression she wore when she
remember the definitions given in the Vocabulary had thoroughly trounced me in checkers”; “I had a
Words to Know section of Focus Your Reading, or burning desire to hit her in the mouth”; “I tried to
they may refine the definitions based on the context imagine Caroline bowing down to me.”
and the reading overall. Students’ new sentences will The sisters’ differences: Chapter 2—“Caroline is tiny
vary. and exquisite, her blonde curls framing a face that is
Check Your Understanding: Multiple Choice glowing with laughter . . . I am hunched there like a
fat dark shadow”; Chapter 3—“She never stumbled
1. c 6. b
or bumped into things. That, she seemed to be
2. c 7. a
saying, was what I did—often enough for both of
3. a 8. b
us”; “She was so sure, so present, so easy, so light and
4. a 9. a
gold, while I was all gray and shadow.”
5. c 10. a
Check Your Understanding: Short Answer II. Chapters 4–6
1. She will go as soon as the snow melts.
2. It lies as “low as a terrapin” in the “faded olive Build Your Vocabulary
water” in the Chesapeake Bay. Wording and definitions may vary. Students may
3. The crab pots are emptied into the washtub for remember the definitions given in the Vocabulary
culling (sorting). Words to Know section of Focus Your Reading, or
4. He is pudgy and nearsighted; he wears glasses; they may refine the definitions based on the context
he is unsentimental. and the reading overall. Students’ new sentences will
5. He never laughs; she tells him jokes to try to vary.
correct this “problem.” Check Your Understanding: Multiple Choice
6. She reads Time magazine avidly.
1. b 6. a
7. They nearly fill it with rank peelers—crabs that
2. a 7. a
will shed within a couple of hours.
3. b 8. c
8. When he got back from the war, his childhood
4. c 9. c
sweetheart had married someone else; later, he
5. a 10. b
married the schoolteacher (their mother).
9. She was born a few minutes before Caroline; Check Your Understanding: Short Answer
she treasures having been the only child for a 1. They are not supposed to like the water; it takes
brief while, because Caroline has “snatched” all their men away.
the attention since her birth. 2. She doesn’t want to spend her life waiting
10. Caroline has called her Wheeze instead of Sara passively at home for things to happen while
Louise (her full name). the men are out on the water.
Deepen Your Understanding 3. Grandma says that Louise is looking at her with
bullets in her eyes.
Answers will vary but might include some of these
4. Caroline kisses their father.
examples from the text:
5. She remembers that there was enough land for
Louise’s feelings about Caroline: Chapter 1—“. . . in
real grass to grow in a pasture.
that voice of hers that made me feel slightly
6. Now most of the land has disappeared; what is
nauseated”; “. . . the story of my sister’s life, in which
left is marshland.
I, her twin, was allowed a very minor role”; Chapter
7. He had panicked during a summer storm and

40
 Answer Key 41

chopped down the mast of his father’s boat; this every afternoon except Sunday; he refuses to
left them with no control of the boat. accept money for the work that he and Louise do.
8. The man says that their nicknames (Wheeze and 3. Louise says that her spiritual health is like that of
Call) sound like a vaudeville act, and that Wheeze someone who has been dead for three days.
and Cough would be even better. 4. They are both shocked, yet fascinated; they have
9. Louise often dreams that Caroline is dead. never heard anyone curse before.
10. She wishes that he would say her poetry sounds 5. She realizes that he has called her by her full
fine; she wishes that he would be gracious about name, Sara Louise; no one else does this.
it and give her a boost. 6. The Captain was living on Rass when Trudy’s
father died years ago. He remembers that Trudy
Deepen Your Understanding
found money after her father’s death and didn’t
Answers will vary. Possible similes that students may know what to do with it.
select include the following: 7. She offers to feed the cats with her own crabbing
Rass Island: “lying low as a terrapin”; Chapter 1: “you money, the money she is saving for school.
stink like a crab shanty”; Chapter 2: “like a fat dark 8. Louise resents it; she feels the way she does when
shadow”; Chapter 3: “like a string of Chinese she hears her birth story.
firecrackers”; “like a film that has jumped the sprockets 9. She finds it mysterious that they act so cheerful.
and is racing untended through the machine”; “like a 10. She resolves to see a real mountain. She will not
single beam of light across the darkness”; “like gunfire”; end up like Grandma, “fearful and shriveled.”
“like powerful magnets”; Chapter 4: “as a wife might
pretend to ignore the existence of her husband’s Deepen Your Understanding
mistress”; “like a man who’s spent his life on the water”; Answers will vary, although student responses should
“drooped like an old waiting woman”; Chapter 5: “like include at least some of the following ideas: At the
an overweight egret”; “shrieking like a gull over beginning of the novel, Louise appears to be relatively
garbage.” respectful of the Methodist Church, which governs the
social behavior of the islanders; there are references to
III. Chapters 7–10 the preacher, keeping the Sabbath, the Ten
Commandments, and so on. However, in view of her
Build Your Vocabulary grandmother’s distorted religious rantings, as well as
Wording and definitions may vary. Students may her own adolescent questioning, Louise appears to grow
remember the definitions given in the Vocabulary more skeptical about the nature and value of religion in
Words to Know section of Focus Your Reading, or they her life. The Church preaches against anger and hate,
may refine the definitions based on the context and the yet she experiences both of these emotions toward
reading overall. Students’ new sentences will vary. Caroline; she thus feels shut out from any divine
consolation. Moreover, the Captain, whom she respects,
Check Your Understanding: Multiple Choice
uses profanity and has no tolerance for the Church; this
1. a 6. a intrigues Louise. By the summer of 1942, Louise says
2. c 7. b that her spiritual health is equal to that of a dead
3. b 8. b person.
4. a 9. a
5. a 10. c
IV. Chapters 11–13
Check Your Understanding: Short Answer
Build Your Vocabulary
1. She reminds the Captain of the Seventh
Commandment, pretending that it refers to Wording and definitions may vary. Students may
working on Sunday; she hopes to expose his remember the definitions given in the Vocabulary
religious ignorance. Words to Know section of Focus Your Reading, or they
2. Call tells the Captain that he and Louise can work may refine the definitions based on the context and the
42 Focus on Reading: Jacob Have I Loved

reading overall. Students’ new sentences will vary. someone who has isolated herself so much that no one
wants to be around her.
Check Your Understanding: Multiple Choice
1. a 6. c
2. a 7. c V. Chapters 14–16
3. c 8. c Build Your Vocabulary
4. c 9. a Wording and definitions may vary. Students may
5. b 10. b remember the definitions given in the Vocabulary
Check Your Understanding: Short Answer Words to Know section of Focus Your Reading, or they
1. The water has left the living room but is in the may refine the definitions based on the context and the
yard, level with the porch. The downstairs is filled reading overall. Students’ new sentences will vary.
with muck. Check Your Understanding: Multiple Choice
2. The trees resemble little boys with summer 1. c 6. b
haircuts. 2. a 7. b
3. Louise imagines that she is an Egyptian slave 3. b 8. a
taking the pharaoh on a tour of the flooded Nile 4. a 9. a
delta. 5. b 10. c
4. She moves back in the boat and hugs him.
5. She is obsessed with the Captain’s hands; she Check Your Understanding: Short Answer
thinks they are beautiful. 1. Louise wants something that can show the world
6. She is convinced that no man will ever fall in love how unique she is.
with her. 2. Auntie Braxton makes a noise like a chicken
7. Caroline looks like a girl in an advertisement. cackle; she is laughing. Caroline, Call, and the
8. Louise cannot get to the stump; the land it is on Captain laugh, too; Louise does not.
has become a small island because of the storm. 3. She runs because the Captain’s kindness is too
9. She realizes that society gives crazy people who painful; she is still lovesick for him and is
are judged harmless much more freedom than embarrassed by her emotions; she is also upset by
ordinary people are allowed. his marriage to Auntie Braxton.
10. Caroline says that the Captain has married Auntie 4. He asks her to sing because Auntie Braxton loves
Braxton. to hear music so much.
5. Mr. Bradshaw sends them to their room because
Deepen Your Understanding
their grandmother is talking so horribly; he wants
Answers will vary. Possible responses may include the to protect them from her evil thoughts.
following: Rass Island, constantly threatened by erosion 6. Call grows taller and thinner; his hands get brown
and flooding, symbolizes not just the physical and and rough; he seems more dignified; he is proud
cultural isolation of its inhabitants but also the spiritual to have become a man.
isolation of the main character, Louise. An additional 7. Louise takes great pleasure in beating Caroline;
“island” symbol can be found in Louise’s favorite she loves to “clean her out” of her winnings.
“private” place on the island, the driftwood stump at 8. Louise thinks that the Captain is going to propose
the tip of the island. When this becomes virtually sending her to boarding school.
submerged and separated from Rass after the big storm, 9. She concludes that God is the speaker of the
it mirrors Louise’s increasing unhappiness and further “Jacob and Esau” passage; therefore, God himself
separation from her social and family circle. The hates her.
remaining bit of land that is visible above the waterline 10. Louise realizes that Call has been communicating
appears, just as Louise often considers herself, regularly with Caroline during his absence; she
“orphaned and alone.” Louise’s grandmother is also an recognizes that they may have a serious
island, unable to leave the house. She is an example of understanding.
 Answer Key 43

Deepen Your Understanding Answers will vary, but responses should include at
Answers will vary. least some of the following concepts: Louise and
Caroline represent the “yin-yang” that comprise any
human being. Louise, who is both literally and
VI. Chapters 17–20
figuratively the “darker” sister, tends to look at life
Build Your Vocabulary negatively and to resent people—particularly her twin.
Wording and definitions may vary. Students may Caroline, the “lighter” sister, tends to look at life
remember the definitions given in the Vocabulary positively and to love people—even her twin, who tries
Words to Know section of Focus Your Reading, or they to shut her out. In order to find fulfillment and peace
may refine the definitions based on the context and the in her life, Louise must reconcile herself not just to
reading overall. Students’ new sentences will vary. Caroline’s overall brightness, but also to the two sides—
dark and light—that exist within her own psyche.
Check Your Understanding: Multiple Choice In the first birth story, Louise is left “clean and cold
1. c 6. b and motherless” as her parents fuss over second-born
2. b 7. c Caroline, who is weaker. There are multiple references
3. c 8. c in the novel to Louise’s feeling chilly, getting the shivers,
4. b 9. c or feeling a sense of cold foreboding; these all refer to
5. a 10. a her birth story and her general sense of rejection. The
Check Your Understanding: Short Answer second birth story, in which Louise is the midwife,
allows her a chance to “make things right.” This time,
1. She invites the Captain to have Christmas dinner
the firstborn twin (the “Louise” figure, but now male) is
with them.
healthy. He is nearly overlooked by his parents—as well
2. The Captain says that he did do it; it took him 20
as by Louise—in their concern for the second baby.
minutes to chop it down and has taken 50 years
However, Louise suddenly remembers the firstborn and
to set it back.
insists that the grandmother, “Hold him as much as you
3. He says that Louise was never meant to be a
can. Or let his mother hold him.” The second-born
woman on Rass.
twin (the “Caroline” figure) is blue and barely
4. Louise feels shut out from the kind of love they
breathing. Her family assumes she will die, but Louise
share; she feels alone and cold (as she imagines
insists, “She won’t die!” Giving the baby as much
herself after her birth).
warmth, cuddling, and nourishment she can, including
5. She answers that of course Louise may leave; she
her own breast milk, Louise saves the infant’s life, and
says that Louise has never said she wanted to leave
in so doing finds her own salvation.
before.
6. She plans to become a midwife, spend a few years
in the mountains, and then get the government to
pay for her to attend medical school. End-of-Book Test
7. The worst problem is that five or six men get 1. c 11. c
drunk on Saturday nights and beat their wives 2. a 12. b
and children. 3. c 13. b
8. He drives to her house one night for help with his 4. c 14. a
son, Stephen, who is sick. 5. a 15. a
9. She has been to both the Captain’s and her 6. a 16. a
grandmother’s funerals. 7. b 17. b
10. Louise predicts that her son will be a singer and 8. b 18. c
that he will “follow the water.” 9. b 19. c
10. a 20. b
Deepen Your Understanding