“The Foghorn” by Ray Bradbury questions Name____________________________
Date_______________Block_________
Directions: Answer the following questions using complete sentences and restating
the question in your answer.
1. Why has McDunn put off telling Johnny about the creature?
2. What would you think and feel if someone told that he or she had seen an enormous,
unknown sea creature? Would you be inclined to believe or disbelieve the report?
3. What does McDunn say that the creature is doing when it comes to the surface? Why
might the creature be attracted to the sound of the foghorn?
4. What causes Johnny to say, “It’s impossible”?
5. What does McDunn mean when he responds, “No, Johnny, we’re impossible”? In
what sense is life today impossible for the sea creature?
6. What does the sea creature do to the foghorn and lighthouse?
7. What do you think causes the sea creature to react in this way? Why might loneliness
sometimes find expression in a desperate action or in anger?
8. At the end of this story, Johnny thinks, “ I sat there wishing there was something I
could say.” What makes the situation of the sea creature hopeless, at least for now?
How does loneliness among human beings differ? What practical steps can people
who are lonely take to change their situation?
9. The setting of a literary work is the time and place in which it happens. What is the
setting of this story? What feelings do the descriptions of this setting create in a
reader of the story?
10. A theme is the central idea in a literary work. What lesson does the story teach about
the extent to which humans know and understand the natural world? What lesson
does this story teach about the consequences of loneliness felt over a long period of
time?