“Sentry”
by Fredric Brown
English 9 - J. Crucil
What is a “sentry”?
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noun, plural= sentries.
1. a soldier stationed at a place to stand guard
and prevent the passage of unauthorized persons,
watch for fires, etc., especially a sentinel stationed
at a pass, gate, opening in a defense work, or the
like.
2. a member of a guard or watch (military)
3. Synonyms: guard, sentinel, lookout, watch,
watchman, patrol.
Predictionwhat do you think the story will be about?
Vocabulary
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Sacred ground:
A place that is considered holy,
important, protected, worthy of
awe, or central to a culture.
Hideous (adjective)
Horrible, ugly, frightening looks,
shocking or revolting.
Repulsive (adjective)
Tending to drive away, aversion,
offensive.
Colonization (to colonize):
a group of people who leave their
native country to form in a new land
a settlement subject to, or connected
with, the parent nation.
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Negotiate (verb):
to deal or bargain with another or
others, as in the preparation of a
treaty or contract or in preliminaries
to a business deal.
Infiltrate (verb):
to move into (an organization, country,
territory, or the like) surreptitiously
and gradually, especially with hostile
intent:
“To draw a bead” (figure of speech
/ verb):
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To take aim with a weapon.
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Keep track of all vocabulary.
Read the story
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Turn to pages 292-293 in your Sightlines 9
textbook.
Follow along as I read aloud.
Ask questions for clarification.
How close was your prediction?
Did you like the story?
How did you feel about the ending?
Narrator
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Who tells the story?
From which point of view does the narrator tell the
story?
We automatically feel empathy or a connection
with the storyteller as we see things through their
eyes.
How to Answer Questions
#3: Describe the setting of the story. Provide three specific
examples.
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Option A
The story is on a planet in
the future.
Option B
The story takes place on a
planet with a blue sun and
gravity.
Option C
“Sentry” takes place on
a planet with a “strange
blue sun” in an un-named
Galaxy. It is “wet and
muddy” with a high, cold
wind. We can assume
the planet is Earth.
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Conflict - the struggle of opposing forces / wants
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Conflict moves the plot / builds suspense
Character vs. character: Joe hates Bob
Character vs. him or herself: Joe is struggling to
overcome his depression.
Character vs. environment (can be anything
outside the character such as society, geography,
weather, etc.): Joe is fighting against society’s
expectations that he will follow the rules and laws
of his community.
How to Answer Questions
#5. How does the author make us empathize with or feel sympathy
for the narrator? Find quotes from the story to support your answer.
Your Interpretation
Quotes from the story
We feel bad for the sentry’s hard
work and can understand how he
feels.
“He was wet and muddy and
hungry and cold and he was fifty
thousand light years from home.”
He’s just a worker drone and has
no control over his own life or the
decisions of war.
“When the chips are down,
though, it was still the foot soldier,
the infantry, that had to take the
ground and hold it, foot by bloody
foot.”
Irony
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The opposite of what one expects to happen.
An unusual or surprise plot twist.
We follow a sequence of events that leads us in one
predictable direction, but then, we arrive at a
totally different place.
Theme
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The main idea, central insight, or observation about the
great universal themes made in a work of literature.
What is the author’s purpose?
What do we learn about humans?
NEVER phrased as a cliché, one-word topic, or moral of
the story.
ALWAYS phrased as a full and complete sentence that can
be proven with evidence from the story.
Re-read the story to test your theory of the theme.