What I Know

1. TRUE 6. FALSE
2. TRUE 7. TRUE
3. FALSE 8. TRUE
4. FALSE 9. FALSE
5. TRUE 10. TRUE

What's New
CRITERIA
Name of author and work
Brief Summary/
Description of work
Analysis
Interpretation
Overall Interpretation
Critical Assessment of the
value/worth of the text
YES/NO Phrase/Sentence taken from the text
NO
YES The book features seventeen short stories, all
written by crime writers and inspired by Lee
Marvin his life, his movies. The stories flow in
chronological order, with the first taking
place in 1944 and the last in 1987, just after
Lee died.
NO
YES I'm happy to admit that I was very wrong.
Not only is every story in the collection
excellent, but it turns out that the concept
worked.
YES In a word, the book rocks! It was fun to see
how the different authors tackled the task of
writing a Lee Marvin-inspired story. I
particularly liked the stories: "1966: Just
Swell," Cameron Ashley; "1967: The Gun
Hunter," Eric Beetner. Beetner's novel The
Devil Doesn't Want Me has now moved up to
number three on my reading list, which
hopefully means I'll get to it in June.
NO
What's More
Activity 1:
A.

1. What's this story about?

- Authored by Jack London, Keesh a 13-year-old lad, a son of a huntsman in a tribal

community, who struggles after the death of his father. He tried to prove himself
confidently by gathering sufficient food for the people of his tribe. But the people
made fun of him and doubted his capabilities. In his work of killing a polar bear, he
got accused of knowing witchcraft also. But at the end of the story, he made them
realize how he cleverly poisoned the bear by giving it poisoned food and killed it.

2. Why does the author tell us this story?

- The author wanted to convey that we should not have a bad prejudice to others and
that we should not forget others sacrifice even if they no longer exist instead, we
should appreciate them for their noble deeds. The author wanted to show what is
now happening in real community life.

3. What (if anything) do readers need to know about the author or the
place and time in which this story occurs?

- The setting of the Story of Keesh is possibly areas near the North of the Arctic
Circle. The phenomenon where the sun never rises is called a Polar Night which lasts
from November to January and can be observed in places in the north of the Arctic
Circle.

4. What impression does the story leave with you?

- This story made me rethink my estimations about myself. The Story of Keesh is one
of those stories who teaches people to not be limited by what other's think and what
society dictates. It is a story of triumph against discrimination of age. It teaches us the
value of confidence and determination. It tells us that there is no limit to our
imagination.
B.

CONTEXT The context in the Story of Keesh is that his father had already
died of trying to kill a bear to be able to provide food for the
whole village. He had admired his father's bravery and sacrifice
for the whole village and had wanted to advocate his father's
beliefs.
AUTHOR’S The author wanted to convey that we should not have a bad
prejudice to others and that we should not forget others
INTENTION sacrifice even if they no longer exist instead, we should
appreciate them for their noble deeds. The author wanted to
show what is now happening in real community life.
YOUR This story made me rethink my estimations about myself. The
Story of Keesh is one of those stories who teaches people to not
REACTIONS be limited by what other's think and what society dictates. It is a
story of triumph against discrimination of age. It teaches us the
value of confidence and determination. It tells us that there is
no limit to our imagination. If we can imagine it, it can be done.
LITERARY Onomatopoeia and Metaphor

DEVICES
LITERARY Literary techniques are specific, deliberate constructions of
language which an Author uses to convey meaning. An Author’s
TECHNIQUE use of a literary technique usually with a single word or phrase,
or a particular group of words or phrase, at one single point in a
text.
ENDING OF The ending of the story Keesh states that the people knew about
how Keesh killed a bear and brought home fresh meat that
THE STORY when the chief of the tribe died, Keesh was the one to replace
him. In the story, the Former Chief was named Klosh-kwan.

What I Have Learned

1. C
2. D
3. A
4. B
What I Can Do
The Introduction

The story of Keesh is a short story which was written by Jack London that was
first published in January of 1904. Keesh was the son of a great huntsman, who
was well known and respected in his tribe. Unfortunately, Keesh’s father died
when Keesh was very young. As is often the case, the legendary exploits of
Keesh’s father was forgotten with time. After many years, the child grows to be
thirteen. Inspired by tales of his father’s skills as a hunter, and emboldened by
his self-confidence and the lackluster amount of food being gathered by the
tribe, he addressed the village elders in the Igloo of the tribe’s chief. A child
addressing the tribal elders was seen as precocious. Keesh declared that he
would honor his father’s memory and became a great hunter, and bring back a
wealth of meat for his people. He was scorned, and they allowed him to go off
on his own. Many never expected to hear from him again. Four days later
Keesh returned, with an enormous burden of freshly-killed meat over his
shoulders. He explained that an entire polar bear’s carcass laid a day’s travel
from the village. The villagers were stunned by this boy having endured the
elements and succeeded in his quest, became suspicious. After several more
hunting excursions on Keesh’s part, all alone and all resulting in enormous
amounts of meat for the tribe, the villagers begin whispering that Keesh is
undoubtedly practicing witchcraft. However, they had no choice but to be loyal
to this manchild, as he had begun to provide them all with bounteous food.
Keesh had the appreciative villagers construct for him an enormous Igloo,
rivaling that of the chief. After more speculation and Inuendo as to the source
of Keesh’s hunting prowess, it was decided to send two scouts to follow him on
a hunting exhibition. They returned several days later, having been successful
in trailing Keesh to his kill, an enormous (and dangerous) polar bear. They told
a tale that the tribal council simply couldn’t believe. Upon his return, the tribe
gathered in Keesh’s igloo to accuse him of witchcraft. He answered their
charges well. Keesh explained the source of his hunting success. He explained
why the two scouts sent to follow him observed him striding up to the bear,
enraging it, and convincing it to follow him. He explained why the scouts
witnessed his leaving small round balls of food on the ice for the bear, and why
the bear soon became ill, and deranged. He explained how he was then able to
spear the bear without endangering himself.
Body
From the detail that we have explained above, we are interested in theme and
the moral value of the story. The theme of the story is the sacrifice which is
forgotten. This phenomena is commonly found in community life. In fact, we
often find in our daily lives. After Keesh was born, when he was young, his
father had been a very brave man, when a time of famine came, he was willing
to sacrifice himself to go to hunt bear alone. While we know that bears are wild
animals, but he thought of how his society could survive. This makes Bok,
Keesh father’s went out hunting without thinking of his own safety. After the
death of Bok, people around him tend to forget the sacrifice and struggle that he
has done.So, we can say that the theme portrays about the characteristic of the
characters in the story. The theme forms the characteristic of the characters in
the story. The sacrifice which is forgotten means that Keesh father had desire to
save the society by hunting the bear. However, he failed and died. On the other
hand, his sacrifice isn’t respected by the society. We can see that in the story
after the death of Keesh’s father, Keesh and his mother were ignored by the
society such as they were isolated from the society, they were left to live in
slum suburb. By knowing the sacrifice of Keesh’s father, the society should be
empathy and care about them. They should treat them like the other members
of the society. In fact, it was not like that. As the result, we know that the
characteristic of the characters in the story are portrayed from the Keesh’s
father sacrifice, because the Keesh’s father sacrifice is unvalued in the society.
We can see from the characters in the story such as Ugh-Gluk. Ugh-Gluk is the
harsh person, then she likes to underestimate people. it looks at the story that
from the beginning until the ending of the story she is still unconscious with the
sacrifice of the Keesh’s father. She still opposes Keesh desire to go to hunt the
bear by himself. That is the proof that she is a harsh person. Beside that, she
likes to underestimate the people seems when she said to Keesh that, it’s
impossible to the son of a failure in hunting will be success to hunt the bear
who is 13 years old by himself. Not only the Ugh-Gluk character that we can
see from the theme but also the other characters. After the death of his father,
Keesh lived alone with his mother in poverty and they are quickly forgotten by
the society. In contrast to when Keesh has grown and become a strong boy, he
tried to prove the community that he is able to hunt. When he succeeded in
getting some bear meat, the people around him change into community who
appreciate and elevating them into the higher class. Before Keesh succeeded in
proving his intelligence in the hunt process, the people around him have given
prejudiced by accusing first that Keesh has used magic to get the bear meat.
This story shows the character in a community life. They just appreciate
someone when he/she succeeds to give something to the society/community
and they immediately forget it then.
Conclusion

Through this literature work, the author tries to portray the phenomena that is
commonly found in our life. Keesh is a major character who has important role
in the story that the author expect to be able to create the impression of being a
savior in the community. Keesh tries to sensitize the community by doing the
same thing as that of his father do in the past. Finally, he succeeds in showing
to the community that his father is a figure of people who contributed to the
community life by looking into Keesh’s work. We can get some moral values
that we have expressed in the detail that we have to appreciate the people’s
work and sacrifice and we should not give prejudice first before we can prove
someone else work. Based on the author’s life who had experienced as the
laborer, factory worker, oyster pirate on the San Francisco Bay, member of the
California Fish Patrol, sailor, railroad hobo, and gold prospector and he
endorsed socialism, it’s related to the theme of story that told about the social
life in human relation in the community. Beside that, the live of the main
character in the story has connection with the real author’s live.

Assessment
1. B
2. C
3. D
4. D
5. A
Additional Activity
3 At first, the story was kind of boring and
not interesting, but it turned out pretty good.
1 We just finished reading an adventure-
fantasy-fiction-heroism story titled "The Wonder
Boy" written by Jack Homer.
4 The author used imagery, paradox, irony,
simile, and onomatopoeia; they are used to
illustrate a subject, which thus gains a clearness.
5 The story ended happily because the boy
found his dog after five years.
2 The story has begun when a boy found a
stray dog in the street.