A River Runs Through It Study Guide

“Can I help you with money or anything?”

Norman

“Do you think I could have helped him?”

Reverend Maclean/ Norman

“You should try to help him”

Paul

“He is beautiful”

Reverend Maclean

“He’s not hurt, just sick. He drinks too much. At Hot Springs they don’t drink too much.”

The Desk Sergeant

“Help is giving part of yourself to somebody who comes to accept it willingly and who needs it badly.”

Reverend Maclean

“I am haunted by waters”

Norman

“Let’s go in and hoist one”

Paul

“No, it wasn’t you. I just slipped and fell.”

Mother Maclean

“Someday, Neal is going to find out about himself, and he won’t come back to Montana. He doesn’t like Montana.”

Norman

“Wahoo!”

A drunken bigot who lost two teeth

“What is the chief end of man?”

Reverend Maclean

“Woman, can’t I love you without liking him?”

Norman

“Buster”

Old Rawhide

“Get out of the way!”

Norman & Jessie

What is the final line of this story?

“I am haunted by waters”

For the Macleans, there is “no clear line between __ and __.

religion and fly fishing

When he was very young, Paul proved he was stronger than his father by doing this?

Refusing to eat his oatmeal (God’s oats)

In Montana, they are never late for these?

Fishing, work, and church

What did Neal always take with him when he went fishing?

A red Hills’ Bros Coffee can

The line, “She was as beautiful a dancer as he was a fly fisherman,” was written about who?

Mo-nah-se-tah

What word does Mr. MacLean use to describe Paul and the fish?

“beautiful”

What was significant about Paul’s body when they found him dead?

Nearly all the bones in his right hand were broken

Drinking this doesn’t count as drinking in Montana

beer

What do Norman and his father talk about while watching Paul fish

Paul

What does Norman do after he takes Paul and his girlfriend back to Paul’s house?

He gently puts them to bed, changes the sheets in his bed for Mp-nah-se-tah

What does Paul hope to avoid where Neal is concerned on their fishing trip to the family’s cabin?

Any confrontation about money or him being put in jail

Other than fish, what else did the brothers do?

street fight

What do Norman and Mr. MacLean come to realize?

The both admit and believe, that despite his flaws, Paul is beautiful.

Not long after Norman is married, he asks Paul to do him what favor?

to take his brother-in-law Neal fishing

What is the profession of Norman and Paul’s father?

Presbyterian Minister