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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 is the Homewood Avenue neighborhood?

2. How does John measure Robby's growth?

3. What caused the prison revolt in 1980?

4. What does John say freedom is related to?

5. What does John notice about the prisoners?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does John characterize the drive to the penitentiary?

2. What happened after Robby's arrest?

3. What does John say about his wife and daughter?

4. How does John describe his and his siblings' background?

5. What does John say Jamila knows of Robby?

6. What does John say the prisoners notice?

7. How does John characterize the waiting room?

8. What happened to Robby that he was wanted by the police?

9. How does John say he and his family act when they get to the penitentiary?

10. Why does John say it might have been a mistake to bring Robby home with him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the role of the women in "Brothers and Keepers", and how would the action and ideas in the book be portrayed differently if they were described from a woman's perspective? How would John's mother, or Judy, or Tanya, tell this story? How does John include their point of view?

Essay Topic 2

Write a character sketch of the author based on his style and content. What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? What life experiences has he had? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

Essay Topic 3

What does John and Robby's blackness have to do with "Brothers and Keepers"? How does it affect their situation, and where, if at all, do they escape from it, or evade its influence? How is blackness defined in the book, and how do John and Robby rework the definition so that it accommodates them?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 747 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample