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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 does Helen do when Ballard first addresses her in the hospital?

2. What do all the cars Ballard drives remind him of?

3. Who did the man killed in the car crash with Ballard work for?

4. Where do the stunt drivers at the stock-car races in the stadium at Northolt work?

5. What kind of commercial did Ballard prepare that he hoped to use a well-known actress for?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Dr. Robert Vaughan wanted by the police and how is it significant?

2. Why doesn't Catherine attend the funeral for Dr. Helen Remington's husband and what does it show about her character?

3. Why does Ballard wear a seat belt when he crashes his car and how is it significant?

4. How does Dr. Robert Vaughan interrupt Ballard's rendezvous with the prostitute and why is it important?

5. What is the significance of the airport in "Crash"?

6. How does the wife of the man killed in the crash with Ballard react to the crash and why is it significant?

7. What is the chronology of the novel and why is it significant?

8. What are Ballard's injuries from his crash with the man and his wife and how does he respond to them?

9. Where does Ballard take Renata after his release from the hospital and why?

10. How does Ballard regard his accident and why is it significant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does J.G. Ballard use language in the novel? How would you characterize the tone and style of the language? Support your statements with examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

In the novel, obsession controls, empowers, and destroys characters in their fixation with particular people, objects, and ideas. Choose 3 characters and discuss their obsessions. In particular, what or who are they obsessed with and why? How does their obsession change them? Give examples throughout the course of the novel to support your statements.

Essay Topic 3

Automobiles play a major role in the novel. Choose 2 characters and discuss their relationship to vehicles. What is their purpose in the novel and what are they a metaphor for? Make sure to define metaphor in your discussion.

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