Name __________________________ Date ____ Per ____

Flush
Directions: Read the following passage from the novel. Pay attention to the italicized,
underlined or boldfaced sentences. Think about their importance, signification or
meaning. You need to interpret Noah’s dream. Think about what is happening in Noah’s
life up to this point in the novel. What is he concerned about? What might each of the
italicized, boldfaced or underlined sentences mean or symbolize? What is the mood or
atmosphere of this passage? Why is the dream suspenseful?

Noah’s Dream
I was so tired that I fell asleep in my clothes. Right away I started dreaming
about fishing, which wasn’t unusual for me. In the dream I was alone in a small
wooden boat, hooked up to a humongous tarpon. That was dragging me out to sea. 1.
The water was getting rougher, and the salt spray was whipping at my cheeks stinging
my eyes. Before long it got dark and I couldn’t see a thing.
2. All I had to do to save myself was let go of the stupid fishing rod, 3. but it
was the biggest tarpon I’d ever seen and I wanted desperately to catch it.
The fish was pulling so hard that the little boat was plowing and lurching through the
waves. Somehow I managed to steady myself in the bow, leaning with a all my might
against the muscle of the fish. Every so often the line would hiss upward, slacken, and
then a tremendous splash could be heard in the distance. 4. I knew it was the sound of
my tarpon jumping, trying to shake out the hook.
Eventually the black gloom was broken by a bright white burst, and I realized we
were passing the lighthouse at Alligator Reef. 5. In the dream I started thinking
about all the monster barracudas and sharks that lived on the reef, and what
a bad thing it would be to tumble overboard there.
Next, something terrifying happened. The boat was lifted by an enormous claw-
shaped wave and tossed like a toy, high in the air. The spinning rod flew from my grip
and I pitched backward, expecting at any moment to crack my skull against the planks
of the transom.
But instead I just kept falling, as if tumbling through a high mountain canyon. I
tried to wake myself but I couldn’t, which is the worst feeling when you’re in the middle
of a bad dream. 6. As I fell, something invisible began rocking me back and forth—
lightly at first, but then harder and harder until I was flopping like a rag doll.
With both arms I swiped out blindly, groping for something to cling to 7. what I
ended up grabbing was a round, mossy-topped rock—or so I thought, until the rock
started speaking.
“Noah,” it whispered. “Please let go of my face.”
I opened my eyes. “Dad?”
1. What is Noah concerned about? Noah is concerned about his dad remaining in jail
and not clearing his name as well as Dusty Muleman getting away with polluting the
ocean without punishment.

2. In passage number 1, the first italicized sentence what is the mood or atmosphere of
this passage? The atmosphere is threatening, dark, scary, worrisome, dangerous and
unpleasant.

3. In the passage number 2, the underlined passage what would “letting go of the
fishing rod and the tarpon” represent or symbolize? Letting go of the fishing rod and
tarpon represents letting go of chasing Dusty and proving he is guilty or emptying his
holding tanks in the ocean.

4. What character could be the tarpon? Dusty Muleman

5. In the boldfaced passage number 3, who is the character Noah “desperately wants to
catch”? Dusty Muleman

Why? It would prove that his father is not crazy and that his father is right that Dusty is
polluting and deserves to be stopped.

6. In passage number 4, who is represented by “trying to shake off the hook”?

What does that mean? Dusty is trying to fool the police by saying bad things about
Paine, he is pretending to fill the sewage tank, he’s trying to get away with polluting and
not get caught. He’s trying to avoid being arrested or fined.

7. In the boldfaced passage number 5, the monster barracudas and sharks that lived on
the reef” represent whom? Dusty, his bald-headed goon, any of his crew who are in on
the scam and illegal dumping of sewage who may harm or try to stop Noah, Abbey or
his dad from revealing the truth

8. In this passage: As I fell, something invisible began rocking me back and forth—
lightly at first, but then harder and harder until I was flopping like a rag doll.
A. Who is actually rocking Noah awake? His dad is rocking him awake from his bad
dream.

B. What type of figurative language is, “I was flopping like a rag doll.” ?
Simile

9. Why is the dream suspenseful? It makes the reader question what will happen next?
There is tension. It plays on the reader’s emotions. The reader wonders if it
foreshadows events to come that Noah is in danger.
10. In this passage, what I ended up grabbing was a round, mossy-topped rock—, what
type of figurative language is it? Metaphor