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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 oldest age to which longleaf pines can live?

2. Janisse describes her area of southern Georgia as lying below the fall line. What does she say that fall line serves to separate from one another?

3. How often did the car crusher make a visit to the family junkyard?

4. How old was Frank when Charlie first talked him into partnering with him in the wrecking yard business?

5. When her brothers did not want to play school, what would Janisse do instead?

Short Essay Questions

1. After explaining that "Ninety-eight percent of the presettlement longleaf pine barrents in the southeastern coastal plains were lost by 1986" (16), Janisse writes that she did not know about this loss as a child. However, she states, "But it is a loss that as an adult shadows every step I take" (16). What does she mean?

2. How does Janisse describe her feelings toward her father when he was mentally unwell?

3. What are some ways in which Janisse shows her parents that she is a tomboy who likes to be outside in nature more than she enjoys any other activities?

4. On page 79, Janisse includes the text of a letter her father Frank wrote to her. In the letter, Frank wrote that he was thankful for his mental illness and that it had taught him seven lessons. What were three of those lessons he said mental illness had taught him?

5. Why did Janisse look forward so much to the days when Frank shopped at Winn-Dixie?

6. What descriptions of her homeland does Janisse give in order to support her claim that her "homeland is about as ugly as a place gets" (13)?

7. How does the passage regarding the bank robber Foster Sellers exhibit the theme of identity prevalent throughout the memoir?

8. Whose idea was it to spread old shoes around underneath the grapevine and what was the intended purpose of that act?

9. How does Janisse Ray use her great-grandfather Pun's career progression to show how white-collar jobs can be even more damaging to the environment than can blue-collar jobs?

10. What example of making something out of nothing does Janisse write about when showing her father Frank's ingenuity in the chapter entitled, "Native Genius"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explicate the scene of Janisse's session of night-rappelling down the cliff. How does she use her story of the event to support the larger themes within her memoir?

Essay Topic 2

Explain the significance of the memoir's title. What does it mean and how does it contain all of the main themes put forth within the whole of the memoir?

Essay Topic 3

What is the significance of scene in which Janisse's grandfather Charlie leads Janisse to his secret copse of huckleberries? How does the author use this event as a metaphor for a particular piece of her worldview and what message does she send to the reader through her relaying of this event?

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