People And Places

Warren Pryor – A. Nowlan (Theme & Image Book 1. Page 13)

1. What work is done by Warren’s family?
Warren's family runs a small farm.

2. How did Warren represent their hopes and dreams?
Warren represented their hopes and dreams because they did not want him to have to toil on the land as they had. They were proud of the fact that he graduated and would be able to better himself.

3. Explain the allusion used in the third stanza (see p. 215). What is the poem’s setting?
This allusion comes from line 3 of section 5 in the Hebrew bible's 23rd psalm. It was used in the poem to show how happy and content Warren's parents were when he went to work at the bank. They could not have asked for a better son.

Although the setting is not specified in the poem, I think it might be New Brunswick due to Mr. Nolan's moving there in 1952. I have heard that it has red soil, which is mentioned in the poem (stanza 3, line 4).

4. Identify the metaphor in the second stanza and the simile in the fourth stanza.
The metaphor in stanza 2 is in the third line. It refers to Warren's graduation scroll as "his passport from the years of brutal toil". The scroll is being compared to a passport that would take him away from the school and the back-breaking work of the farm.

The simile in the fourth stanza is line 2: "like a young bear inside his teller's cage,". This simile is saying that Warren was as a caged bear - restless and perhaps not very friendly.

5. Explain the situational irony of "Warren Pryor".
The situational irony of Warren Pryor is that his parents, wanting only the best for their sun, unwittingly forced him into a situation where he was not comfortable or happy. He did everything that they wanted him to do, but in the end, he was not content with his lifestyle.

6. Create hyperlinks to online definitions for the terms allusion, metaphor, simile, and situational irony in the questions above.
 - allusion
 - metaphor
 - simile
 - situational irony