Excerpt from Old Indian Days by Charles A. Eastman
It was now full-born day. The sun shone hot upon the bare ground, and the drops stood upon Snana’s forehead as she plied her long pole. There was a cool spring in the dry creek bed near by, well hidden by a clump of chokecherry bushes, and she turned thither to cool her thirsty throat. In the depths of the ravine her eye caught a familiar footprint—the track of a doe with the young fawn beside it. The hunting instinct arose within.
“It will be a great feat if I can find and take from her the babe. The little tawny skin shall be beautifully dressed by my mother. The legs and the nose shall be embossed with porcupine quills. It will be my work-bag,” she said to herself. As she stole forward on the fresh trail she scanned every nook, every clump of bushes. There was a sudden rustle from within a grove of wild plum trees, thickly festooned with grape and clematis, and the doe mother bounded away as carelessly as if she were never to return.
Ah, a mother’s ruse! Snana entered the thorny enclosure, which was almost a rude teepee, and, tucked away in the furthermost corner, lay something with a trout-like, speckled, tawny coat. She bent over it. The fawn was apparently sleeping. Presently its eyes moved a bit, and a shiver passed through its subtle body.
“Thou shalt not die; thy skin shall not become my work-bag!” unconsciously the maiden spoke. The mother sympathy had taken hold on her mind. She picked the fawn up tenderly, bound its legs, and put it on her back to carry like an Indian babe in the folds of her robe. “I cannot leave you alone, Tachinchala. Your mother is not here. Our hunters will soon return by this road, and your mother has left behind her two plain tracks leading to this thicket,” she murmured.
Use the excerpt from "Snana’s Fawn” to answer the question.
How does Snana’s perspective change during the story?
(1 point)
Responses
She matures from seeing the world as a child to an adult.
She matures from seeing the world as a child to an adult.
She shifts from having a hunter's instinct to a mother's instinct.
She shifts from having a hunter's instinct to a mother's instinct.
She goes from fearing wild animals to admiring them.
She goes from fearing wild animals to admiring them.
She changes from disrespecting her elders to respecting them.
She changes from disrespecting her elders to respecting them.
1 answer
The correct response is: She shifts from having a hunter's instinct to a mother's instinct.
Initially, Snana feels the excitement of hunting and desires to take the fawn for her own purposes. However, upon finding the fawn, her perspective shifts as she feels a deep empathy and maternal instinct, deciding to care for it instead of pursuing it as prey.
