The River Why Study Guide
JOURNEY FROM NON-NATIVE GUS TO NATIVE GUS:
VOCABULARY AND STUDY QUESTIONS FOR THE RIVER WHY
PART 2
BOOK 1: The Compleat Angler
CHAPTER 1: “Gus the Fish”
Part 1 Vocabulary words:
-DEFINE the words before you read
-CIRCLE them in your text and draw a line with a definition (this can be checked in class)
-POST the definitions on the first homework due.
1 intimation (noun) / intimate (verb):
2 inexorable,
3 effete,
4 catalyst,
5 catharsis,
6 loquacious,
7 vilify,
8 pacifistic,
9 malapropism,
10 debilitate,
11 prodigious,
12 ebullient,
13 non sequitur,
14 ratiocination,
15 conundrum,
16 appease,
17 profundity
18 pernicious
19 belie
20 inordinate
21 prodigy
1. What activity defines Gus’s father: Henning Hale Orviston (H2O)? Gus’ mother: Carolina Carper Orviston (Ma)?
CHAPTER 2: “The Rogue River Fishing War”
1. How was the fishing derby beneficial to Gus’s parents?
CHAPTER 3: “Concerning Statistics”
1. What does Gus mean by “the essential pleasures of fishing are as independent of statistics as are the joys of childbirth independent of little Bosco’s length”?
2. What does fishing allow Gus to focus upon?
3. What does Gus resist when he is voted “Most Out of It” by his senior class in high school? How does this appease Gus’s anxiety about being accepted?
CHAPTER 4: “Statistical Improbabilities” (Character Sketch)
1. Describe Bill Bob.
2. How does Bill Bob write Gus a check?
3. What does this tell us about Gus’ and Bill Bob’s feelings for religion?
CHAPTER 5: “Great Izaak Walton Controversy”
Part 2 Vocabulary words:
-DEFINE the words before you read
-CIRCLE them in your text and draw a line with a definition (this can be checked in class)
-POST the definitions on the homework when Chapter 5 is due.
1 zealot
2 indefatigable,
3 raison detre
4 instantaneous
5 assimilate
6 rheum
7 primordial,
8 nomenclature,
9 ennui,
1. Why does Gus reject Walton’s pantheism?
2. What idea does Gus glean by reading Walton’s book?
CHAPTER 6: “Excerpts from the God Notebook”
1. What do we learn about Gus’ philosophy on fate and free will from his summary of the Bible?
CHAPTER 7: “Being Educated; Getting Brung Up”
1. What is Gus’ definition of an adolescent? How accurate is it? (60-62)
2. Why does Gus put the note around the catfish’s collar in the hospital fountain?
3. What is “native intelligence”? (70-73)
4. How / Where does one develop “native intelligence”? How does this affect Gus?
CHAPTER 8: “The Ideal Schedule”
1. What is L.Q.B.S? U.S.A.?
2. What is the problem with the realization of the idea schedule?
3. What does the idea schedule reveal about Gus’s character?
CHAPTER 9: “Voiding my Rheum”
1. Why does Gus reject his father and mother?
BOOK 2: THE UNDOING OF A SCIENTIFIC ANGLER
CHAPTER 1: “Where I Lived, What I Lived For”
1. What does Gus learn from clear cuts?
CHAPTER 2: “Water on the Brain”
1. Why does the death of “Alfred” affect Gus?
2. Why does Gus state that he wants to die?
CHAPTER 3: “Anvil Abe and the Phantom Fisherman”
1. How does Gus react to the discovery of Anvil Abe?
2. What do we learn about Gus’s maturity in this chapter?
CHAPTER 4: “Fainting Before the Duel”
1. Who is Titus?
CHAPTER 5: “I Reckon”
Part 3 Vocabulary words:
-DEFINE the words before you read
-CIRCLE them in your text and draw a line with a definition (this can be checked in class)
-POST the definitions on the first homework due.
1 metaphysical
2 existential,
3 anamnesis
4 pious,
5 Descartes
6 mirth,
7 troglodyte,
1. What happens to Gus’ philosophy of life as a result of finding Anvil Abe?
2. What is H2O’s “Sum Total Theory”?
3. What is Ma’s philosophy on life and death?
4. What is GG’s philosophy on life and death?
5. What is Gus’s present understanding of death?
CHAPTER 6: “Anamnesis”
1. What does Gus learn from solitude?
2. What is a “dreefee”? What is the etymology of the word?
3. What is a light night? a garden angel?
4. How is Bill Bob’s theory of life and death like / dislike GG’s, H2O’s?
5. How does Gus’ recollection of Bill Bob’s theory on the garden world affect his understanding of life and death?
BOOK 3: CHARACTERS IN NATURE
CHAPTER 1: “The River Writes”
1. What does the river ask Gus?
2. What does Gus learn from allowing the river to write / communicate re: clear cuts, strip miners, dam erectors...? How does the river writing allow Gus to become more of an environmentalist?
3. What quality does Gus reveal when he states: “the thing I found most offensive...was the smug ingratitude that assumed the world and its creatures owed us everything...and we owed the world nothing in return”
4. What is the significance of the Thomas Bigeater story? the Wolf Clan story?
PART 4 VOCABULARY:
astute
pantheism
sophistry
usurp
misanthropy
respite
etymology
cacophony
extemporaneous
soliloquy
sardonic
elusive
exasperated
reverence
cursory
transcendence
CHAPTER 2: “Neighbors”
1. Who are Gus’s neighbors?
2. What does Gus learn about solitude?
CHAPTER 3: “The Warble and the Water Owl”
1. What are the two explanations Gus offers for the inexplicable? Which one do you agree with?
2. What inexplicably happens to Gus as he skinny dips?
CHAPTER 4: “Eddy”
1. Since he has overcome his fear of death, what does Gus now fear?
CHAPTER 5: “Jesus Keeps Fishing”
1. What does Titus’ believe are the three consolations for unrequited love?
CHAPTER 6: “Descartes”
PART 5 VOCABULARY:
panacea
fecund
machinations
plausible
manifestation
wanton
CHAPTER 7: “Philosophizing”
1. How does Titus get Gus to understand that he already has witnessed the effects of a divine presence?
2. What is the connection between reading the river for fishing and becoming a spiritual person?
3. Titus asks Gus who controls his destiny, Gus responds “wish I knew.” Why does Titus believe the key to finding one’s soul or witnessing a divine presence lies in Gus’ answer “wish I knew”?
4. What does Gus realize about his relationship with God when he says that he is a “soul-pole”?
CHAPTER 8: “Little, but Strong”
1. What has happened to U.S. Grant Creek? How does this affect Gus?
2. Where does Gus find the source of the creek? What is the significance of it location?
3. How does Gus’s increasing awareness of environmental destruction develop Gus?
CHAPTER 9: “Closing the Door”
1. How is Gus like the last trout in U.S. Grant Creek?
2. What does Gus learn about himself when he states “back through the door was everything familiar to me (but)...beyond the river a wide and ancient and unknown world that I must now enter.”
BOOK 4: THE LINE OF LIGHT
CHAPTER 1: “Hemingway”
1. What does Gus choose as a profession?
CHAPTER 2: “Dutch”
1. How does Gus expose his capacity for greed after meeting Dutch Hines?
CHAPTER 3: “Nick the Convert”
1. How is Nick saved from drowning?
2. How is Gus affected by this story?
CHAPTER 4: “The Trek”
1. What does Gus believe Anvil Abe, the why in the river, Thomas Bigeater, Eddy, the scar in Nick’s palm are?
2. What does Gus imply about his knowledge of the world developed through his native intelligence in the following quote: “...who told the neighboring ferns never to die for the sake of a changing season? And who told the vine leaf and the alder always to do so, but only for the sake of change men call October? What the botanists never tell is why each tree, leaf and needle obey.” (Duncan 234).
3. When Gus looks at his hand and finds it scarless, what does he resolve to do with the Tamanawis?
4. Why is it important that the Tillamook boy believes that the “source was everywhere” and therefore did not journey to any specific destination? How does this help Gus?
CHAPTER 5: “The Raven and the Why”
Vocabulary words:
1. How does the Tillamook boy come of age?
2. What does Gus realize about spiritual journeys when he says: “God knows, I wanted to know my soul. I wanted to befriend Whoever it had been that walked with me on the road, yesterday dawn...I would never make it. Not alone. I would never make it to the real source of things unless or until Ol Nameless chose to come and find me fishing.”
3. What spiritual and ecological revelation does Gus have in the following quotation:
What I realized was that a mecca isn’t worth much if it’s
not a place inside you more than a place in the world;...
what I realized was that the real Tamanawis was the entire
Tamanawis, and that the source of that river was rain,
ground water, dew, snow melt, fog, mist, animal piss, no name
trickles, podunk swamps, hidden springs, an the source of all
these sources was the clouds, an the source of the clouds was
the sea, so the river running past my cabin literally did have
its source everywhere, at least everywhere that water had
visited-which includes all the Space and Time in the world..
4. When Gus transcends into a raven, he achieves a more natural (less human) perspective of the world. Seeing the w h y in the Tamanawis River from this perspective, he realizes the answer to the question the river asks. What is the answer to the river’s “why”?
CHAPTER 6: “Googler and Mangler”
1. What does Gus realize when he says “...the hollow place those longings had carved in me became a kind of sanctuary, an emptiness I grew used to , grew satisfied to leave unfulfilled.”
CHAPTER 7: “Trick or Treat”
CHAPTER 8: “The Line of Light”
1. Why does Eddy make Gus play a fish that he knows he will never catch? What will this make Gus realize?
2. Gus experiences an “Equilibrium” while fishing. Describe this state:
3. What has filled Gus’s emptiness?
4. What do the salmon and the surrounding animals teach Gus?
5. What part of Gus’s existence is lost while playing the salmon he knows he will not land?
7. What does Gus mean when he says “I felt as though I were returning to some forgotten, ancient home.”
8. Where does the “line of light” lead and how does it affect Gus?
BOOK 5: AT THE END OF THE LINE
CHAPTER 1: “Last Chapter”
1. What allows Gus to reject the draft card?
2. Who is Hu and why does Gus want to be like him?