70 pages • 2 hours read
Lynda RutledgeWest with Giraffes
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
PROLOGUE-CHAPTER 5
Reading Check
1. How long had Woody been in New York City when the hurricane struck?
2. What is one thing Woody claims the Dustbowl survivors ate?
3. What is Woody’s motivation?
4. Where does Augusta want her photo essay to appear?
5. To what does Woody compare his orphaned self?
6. What will Riley Jones not tolerate?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Woody find he cannot do after he has been orphaned?
2. Why is the rabbit foot so important to Woody?
3. What gift did Woody’s mother believe he had?
4. What is the purpose of news clippings and telegrams in the story?
5. What was road travel like during the depression?
6. Why is the scene in which they hit the stray dog significant?
7. What attitude can Riley Jones not understand?
Paired Resource
- Attributed to Harry McClintock, this American traditional folk song represents an unhoused person’s paradise.
- This song entices listeners to think about Adventure as a Catalyst to Self-Discovery.
- How does this traditional folk song reveal the ironies of hoping for a land of boundless opportunity and contextualize the plight of migrants like Woody?
“The Hobo and the Fairy” by Jack London
- In this short story, a person without a home mistakes a little girl for a fairy. When she offers to be his good Samaritan, her innocence bewitches him with hope that he can find both work and redemption.
- This connects to the theme of Adventure as a Catalyst to Self-Discovery.
- How do both Woody Nickle and Ross Shanklin benefit from a “good Samaritan,” and how does this act of kindness and good faith serve as a catalyst for transforming their characters?
CHAPTERS 6-10
Reading Check
1. What does Rutledge hint that Woody might have done through his dreams?
2. Who is Riley Jones excited to see working on the road up the Blue Ridge Mountains?
3. What does Augusta reveal about herself to Woody?
4. What does Percival T. Bowles bribe Woody with?
5. What does Woody take for a bad sign in his dream?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does elderly Woody mean when he writes “memories stick to things” in Chapter 6?
2. How does Rutledge characterize Belle Benchley?
3. What might Augusta’s disappearance at the sight of the police indicate?
4. What does Moses and Big Papa’s family help Woody realize when the rig is stuck beneath the bridge?
5. What might Woody’s sense of uneasiness show about his character despite knowing Riley Jones will buy him a train ticket to California?
6. How is a circus different from a zoo, according to Riley Jones’s descriptions?
7. What is Woody’s major internal conflict, and how does he resolve it?
Paired Resource
“The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck
- In this short story, Steinbeck explores the ways in which loneliness and the human need for connection prime people to be willingly deceived.
- This connects to the theme of The Power of Memory and Storytelling.
- What similarities and differences do you see between the interactions and motivations of Woody and Percival T. Bowles and those of Elisa Allen and the tinker? How might both stories capture a truth about life and survival during the Great Depression?
“Barnum on ‘Humbugging and Puffing’” and “P.T. Barnum Isn’t the Hero the ‘Greatest Showman’ Wants You to Think”
- Posts from the Barnum Museum website and Smithsonian contextualize the historical figure of P. T. Barnum, exploring both his philosophy on using spectacle to entice crowds and his willingness to dupe the public in the interest of making money.
- This connects to the theme of The Power of Memory and Storytelling.
- Percival T. Bowles not only shares initials with the circus showman, P. T. Barnum, but operates with a similar eye to the bottom line. In what ways does Percival T. Bowles rely on “humbugging” and “puffing” in his interactions with Woody, and what does this character show about the nature of the circus business during the Great Depression?
CHAPTER 11-EPILOGUE
Reading Check
1. What does Woody buy when he realizes they will be traveling through dust storms between Oklahoma and New Mexico?
2. What does Augusta sacrifice to save the giraffes?
3. What dream does Augusta still have a chance to cross off her list?
4. Who saves the group from Cooter’s sawed-off shotgun?
5. What must people have to enter California’s border blockade?
6. What delays Woody’s return to San Diego for seven years?
7. Who told Riley Jones to take a risk on Woody?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Riley Jones explain the murmuration of birds?
2. What are the ironies of Woody’s homecoming?
3. Why does Woody’s father supposedly shoot the mare, and what does Woody think he sees in his eye?
4. How does Rutledge create tension in the confrontation between Woody and his father?
5. What does the sobering experience with Cooter do for Woody?
6. What does August like best about photographs, and what does this reveal about her inner conflict?
7. Why does Woody decide to write his story after years of keeping it to himself?
Paired Resource
“Home is Not Just a Place” by Edwidge Danticat
- Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat reflects on immigration, the power of home, and home’s role in a person’s sense of self.
- This connects to the theme of Adventure as a Catalyst to Self-Discovery.
- What is home for both Woody and Danticat? What role does this concept of home play in shaping a person’s sense of self and purpose?
“The Shooting of Candy’s Dog” from Of Mice and Men
- This scene from Gary Sinise’s adaptation of Of Mice and Men explores prevailing attitudes regarding animals, people with disabilities, and elders during the Great Depression, revealing that most people viewed these groups as expendable.
- This relates to the theme of Animals as Sentient, Wise, and Valuable.
- What attitudes did most people hold toward animals during the Great Depression? How do Sinise and Rutledge use both style and character to undermine and subvert these attitudes?
Recommended Next Reads
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
- Orphaned and struggling to make ends meet during the Great Depression, Jacob Janowski joins the circus where he forms a bond with Rosie, an untrainable elephant, and vows to protect her from a cruel but charismatic trainer.
- Shared themes include Adventure as a Catalyst to Self-Discovery and Animals as Sentient, Wise, and Valuable.
- Shared topics include coming of age, the Great Depression, transporting animals, and lasting bonds between humans and animals.
- Water for Elephants on SuperSummary
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- As the only human survivor of a shipwreck in the Pacific, 16-year-old Pi is left adrift in a lifeboat with a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The two must find common ground if they are to survive at sea.
- Shared themes include Adventure as a Catalyst to Self-Discovery, The Power of Memory and Storytelling, and Animals as Sentient, Wise, and Valuable.
- Shared topics include adventure, coming of age, transporting animals, and lasting bonds between human and animals.
- Life of Pi on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
PROLOGUE-CHAPTER 5
Reading Check
1. Less than six weeks (Chapter 1)
2. Prairie dogs, rattlesnakes, tumbleweeds (Chapter 1)
3. The promise of a golden life in California (Chapter 2)
4. Life Magazine (Chapter 2)
5. A stray dog (Chapter 3)
6. Thieves and liars (Chapter 4)
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. The trauma of losing his parents and siblings has left Woody unable to talk. (Chapter 1)
2. Woody has lost everything, and the hurricane has killed his cousin. The rabbit foot, representing luck, is the last thing he has in the whole world to rely on. (Chapter 1)
3. Woody’s mother believed he had his Aunt Beulah’s gift of premonitions. (Chapter 2)
4. News clippings and telegrams help Rutledge showcase her research and sequence background events without writing exposition. (Chapter 2)
5. Only two major highways crossed the continent from coast to coast. Unlike today, there were long, remote stretches, areas that were poorly maintained, and few standardized features, making road travel much more dangerous. (Chapter 3)
6. Before hitting the dog, Riley Jones seemed cold and harsh, but his care and attention for the dog and clear dislike of its suffering helps reveal his underlying softness and a care for animals that goes beyond his job. (Chapter 3)
7. Riley Jones cannot understand believing an animal’s life is worth less than a human’s because he believes life is life. (Chapter 4)
CHAPTERS 6-10
Reading Check
1. Killed someone (Chapter 6)
2. The CCC (Chapter 7)
3. Her heart condition (Chapter 8)
4. $20/ Golden double eagle coin (Chapter 9)
5. A sawed-off shotgun (Chapter 10)
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Woody wants his reader to understand the lasting power of memory and how sensory experiences unlock them for the rest of a person’s life, such as how the staff dusting transports him back to his Dustbowl cabin. (Chapter 6)
2. Rutledge relies on contradictions to capture Belle Benchley’s unlikely position as head of the zoo during a time when women were often barred from these roles. For example, she has small stature and large courage, grace and a penchant for cursing, and Riley Jones’s respect and deference when he calls her “Boss Lady” and fears upsetting her. (Chapter 6)
3. Augusta’s disappearance may indicate that she is afraid of being reported for rear-ending them as they climbed the mountain road or that the green Packard does not belong to her. (Chapter 7)
4. Seeing how careful, kind, and respectful the family is, Woody realizes that racial prejudices—and by extension, the lessons of his Texas upbringing—are not hard facts, but beliefs to challenge and replace with new ideals. (Chapter 8)
5. Although he believes himself to be a single-minded survivor, he also craves the connection with others and the sense of purpose he has gotten by driving and caring for the giraffes. His sense of uneasiness may reveal that California was not his sole motivation for following them. (Chapter 9)
6. Unlike a zoo, which operates with respect for its animals’ wildness and fosters a sense of awe, a circus is exploitive, operating with care for profits and fostering a sense of spectacle. To Riley Jones, circuses lack respect for creatures’ wildness. (Chapter 9)
7. Woody is torn between his commitment to survival and his loyalty to Riley Jones and the giraffes. When his greed endangers Wild Girl and he sees his own future reflected back at him by the scrawny rail rider stealing pecans from their truck, he decides to choose loyalty. (Chapter 10)
CHAPTER 11-EPILOGUE
Reading Check
1. Vaseline (Chapter 11)
2. Her photos (Chapter 12)
3. Becoming a mother (Chapter 12)
4. Wild Boy (Chapter 13)
5. Money and a job (Chapter 14)
6. WWII service (Chapter 15)
7. The giraffes (Epilogue)
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Riley Jones muses that birds can flock and turn together because they have instincts that allow them to sense their surroundings and even the future, like a premonition. He tells Woody that humans have these instincts too, but that more people view it as a mental illness than a gift. (Chapter 11)
2. The homecoming is ironic for Woody because he never intended to return and fears Riley Jones will leave him where he started when he finds out about his crimes. For the giraffes who survived a hurricane at sea, it is ironic that they would face another threat of flood in the middle of the dry plains. (Chapter 12)
3. His father claims that it is just an animal, that killing the dying mare is a mercy, and that Woody needs to kill her to toughen his heart, but Woody just sees a desperate man trying to exert control when he has none and whose kindness has died with his wife and children. (Chapter 13)
4. Narrating in present tense gives the scene more immediacy. Rutledge includes fragments to create suspense and aid pacing, and though she reprises the key details that Woody has mentioned throughout the book—such as the mare’s brown apple eyes and the gunshot—she subverts reader expectations by revealing that Woody did not fire the killing shot, that his father killed himself. (Chapter 13)
5. Woody put everyone in danger by drawing on his rage and anger to change an impossible situation, and it did not save them from Cooter—Wild Boy did. This incident teaches Woody that some things are beyond a person’s control, and he can finally let the rage he has carried toward his father subside, giving him a much-needed catharsis. (Chapter 14)
6. Augusta likes photographs because they stop time, and because of her heart condition, she is keenly aware that her time is running out. For her, photography is a way to indulge a wish that cannot really be fulfilled. (Chapter 14)
7. He realizes that because she was there with them in spirit and because she deserves to know her mother’s courage, Augusta’s daughter should hear the story. He writes it for her, not knowing if it will ever reach her. (Epilogue)
