Rabbit Proof Fence Study Guide

(1) List exact repetitions and the number of each (words/details) famous (x14), earth (x2), bosom (x2), your (x2), one (x3), smile/smiled (x2)
(2) List repetitions of the same or similar kind of detail or word (aka, strands)
Strands: river, fish, earth (connecting logic: Naomi is describing life among the outdoors. The fish needs the river to live.)
Strands: birds/birdhouse (connecting logic: The birds are in their natural habitat/safe zone watching the sleeping cat. The cat is important to the birds because they know it can hurt them.)
Strands: tear/cheek, idea (connecting logic: When people have an idea that they feel strongly about, they may become emotional about it and may tear up. Naomi is describing an emotional scene.) shuffling men/crossing
loud voice/silence (A loud voice could result from a lack of silence or vice-versa.) cat sleeping/birds watching (The birds feel safe/alert while they watch the cat sleep. This is one of the more important binary oppositions because Naomi could be making us aware that we're too scared of combatting challenges in life so we stay in our comfort zones until a new opportunity arises instead of challenging our fears.)
A boot that is famous to the earth vs. a dress shoe that is famous to the floor (Naomi is illustrating that people with boots walk on the earth and people with dress shoes walk on floors. Since the boot is more famous than the dress shoe, she notes that more people value wearing boots than dress shoes. There's different tools/objects made for different situations.)
(4) Choose one repetition, strand, or binary as a starting point for a healthy paragraph in which you discuss its significance in relation to the
If she didn't create an obvious repetition of "famous" in this poem, the whole meaning of the poem would be nonexistent or easily misunderstood. For instance, each stanza uses this word to make a comparison between two ideas or suggest that two topics are related to each other because one is famous to the other. Since "famous" is being described in several different situations, Naomi is offering her audience several distinct perspectives of it. By mentioning lines such as "the river is famous to the fish" and "the cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds" she draws readers to her thesis that there are several reasons for something/someone to stand out to someone/something else; there's not just one way that someone becomes famous to someone else. For instance, the river is only important to the fish because fish need rivers to survive. In contrast, the sleeping cat is popular among the birds because they fear what it can do to them, not because they need the cat to live. Not only does the word "famous" construct the thesis of the poem, but it strengthens the poem's strands and binary oppositions. For example, the binary opposition that discusses the difference between the boot that's famous to the earth and the dress shoe that's famous to floors is significant because it