“The Measure Of A Man” Chapter One: The Idyll (1/3)

Study Guide: The Measure of a Man

III. Chapter One: The Idyll

A. General Understanding

Discuss with a partner whether the following statements are True or False:

Sidney Poitier …
	1. lived a life like poor children everywhere on Cat Island, in the Bahamas.
	2. was given formal swimming lessons by his parents.
	3.learned all about nature through observation and experience and cultivated an instinct for survival.
	4. does not believe modern technology has improved children’s lives.
	5. spent days during his childhood that had no normal pattern to them and were the reason for his lack of security.
	6. was born in Miami when his parents went there to sell oranges.
	7. was a spoiled child.
	8. regarded his mother as his “guardian angel” when he was a boy
	9. had a dream at age 12 of going to Hollywood to become a cowboy.
	10. had an older sister by the name of Teddy who laughed at him for having dreams that were too big for someone from his station in life.;
	11. shows his family No Way Out, his first film and the first film they ever saw in Nassau when he is about 22 years old.
	12. believes that his paternal ancestors escaped slavery in Haiti to come to Cat Island, where slavery did not exist.
	13. knew a simple life on Cat Island, where people’s struggle for survival was marked by a neighborly kind of competition.
	14. saw all the trappings of modernity – electric lights, running water, toilets, cars, and shoes – for the first time when he went to live in Nassau.
	15. thought from the very beginning of his life that being black was a problem that he was born with and that would never go away.

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