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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What quality did the Kiowas have that the Navajo did not approve?

2. What does Set have to learn to converse with Lela?

3. Where does Worcester Meat go after he has been sick for thirteen more days?

4. What had caused Set's breakdown, according to the hospital?

5. What does Lela say has made Set sick?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Set enter his old house with dread?

2. In his old age, what is the last thing that the shield maker dreams? Why is this dream of his significant?

3. Why did the native people move south into the great plains?

4. Why does Grey feel at once humbled and important when she thinks of Set?

5. What does Set feel as he opens the medicine bundle?

6. As Grey changes from a girl to a woman, how does Set's attitude toward her change?

7. Grey closes one calendar and opens another in Chapter Eleven of Book Two. What do these different calendars represent?

8. What do the lines on the red earth represent?

9. What is the Kaitsenko Society?

10. What is the vision that Set hopes to see?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Both Set and Grey come from more than one ancestral background. Discuss the similarities and differences between the families of each. Use direct quotations and examples from the story to support each point.

Essay Topic 2

Both Set and Grey express themselves through art: Set as a painter and Grey as a writer. Write an essay analyzing the way each expresses himself or herself as it changes through the story. As you catalog the changes, determine whether you think each will continue to practice their painting and writing in the future. If so, do you think they will share their work with others? What do you make of the fact that their great-great grandson is an artist, a maker of shields?

Essay Topic 3

Death is a theme in this story. Describe the various ways in which death comes to characters in the story, noting especially the conversation about dying properly between Set-Angya and Billy the Kid. What is a "proper" death? Which characters die properly? Which do not?

(see the answer keys)

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