Beasts of the Southern Wild Test

Name ____________________________

Period ___________

Beasts of the Southern Wild Quiz

April 12, 2016

Directions: Please answer these questions on another sheet of paper. Be sure to number the answers and use the questions in the answer so I know what you are talking about—those are otherwise known as complete sentences.

1. How did you track and analyze the theme from the movie over the course of the entire movie?

2. Who or what or who and what does the “Beasts” in the title of the film represent?

3. Explain the connection between the plots of Hushpuppy and the Aurochs.

4. How is your community (whatever that is to you) different OR similar to that of the community in the bathtub?

5. Reread your notes (especially actions and dialogue) for anything having to do with Hushpuppy. What do you think her main goal was throughout the film? Did she achieve her goal? Explain how it conflicted with goals of other characters throughout the film.

6. Did you like the film? Why or why not? Provide at least three examples to support your claim.

7. Explain how the theme emerges and is shaped using three (two for ELD) different categories of your notes. You do not have to quote (except in dialogue) but you do need to add specific evidence to back up your reasoning so I can tell you know what you’re talking about. I have provided an example that I will go over with you in class. Use the example. It’s there to help you.  

Yours will look just like this!

Action

The theme of Death emerges many times in the film Beasts of the Southern Wild. One way theme emerges in the film is through actions. Hushpuppy, the brave young girl in the film, strikes her father, Wink, in the heart causing him to have a heart attack. The heart attack relates to the theme of death.

            And this where the theme of death is shaped into death brings us closer together. Though Hushpuppy immediately ran to get medicine to help her ill father, she returned to find him gone. She thinks he may have turned into a bug or a tree. After once again finding her father alive, the father and daughter become closer and closer as the film goes on. Wink’s and Hushpuppy’s flirtation with death brought them closer together. Hushpuppy is fully aware of her father’s heart troubles and will do everything she can to help him.  

Symbolism

            The theme of death also emerges through the film’s symbolism. The alligators in the film are magic and are killed and eaten, therefore symbolizing both life and death. The alligators were hunting, trying to survive, but Hushpuppy’s mom killed the alligator and cooked it up before the alligator had a chance to kill a drunken Wink.  

            The alligator is sacrificed; it is killed to keep life going. We first hear of the alligator in a tale told by Wink to Hushpuppy about her conception. This tale of death shapes the theme of death into death brings us together. The next time we see alligator is when Hushpuppy’s mom feeds her fried alligator tail, bringing the two together if not actually, then metaphorically. Hushpuppy then takes the alligator meat back to her father and feeds him his last meal before his heart no longer beats. The alligator meat, a dead animal, brings Hushpuppy closer to her mother and her father.

Conflict

            The theme of death also emerges in the film’s person vs. nature conflict. The community of the Bathtub cannot combat the death and destruction no matter how hard they try. They can shoot the storm, the can wear life jackets and they can hide their animals but Mother Nature always wins.

This trail of death left by Mother Nature shapes the theme of death by bringing the community closer together. Though the bathtub is destroyed by the salt in the water, the community never gives up. In fact, they become closer, tighter. The community is united until the very end...and beyond. They are together through the government relocation, through rebuilding, through Wink’s death and even at the end of the film where they are all walk together as the water pours over their shoes. Death brought them together.

The theme of Beasts of the Southern Wild is death brings us closer together emerges and is shaped through action, symbolism and conflict.