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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. The comment about Straford that it is “the reverse side of the coin that bears the ghetto on its face” (125) offers an example of which of the following?

2. Which of the following judges features in Fife’s work on priestly misconduct?

3. Which of the following is the name of Fife and Nick Dafina’s high school principal?

4. On what date does Fife resign from employment with Varney?

5. Which of the following jobs does Fife note working in St. Petersburg?

Short Essay Questions

1. With what interviewing technique does Malcolm credit Fife?

2. How does Fife define innocence?

3. What are Nick Dafina’s military plans?

4. How does Malcolm note Fife’s filming of Joan Baez and others at her headline event differs from other depictions?

5. What apprehension does Fife face as he parks in front of a pharmacy in his hometown?

6. What does Fife note as a primary Sunday occupation in St. Petersburg?

7. What features of Boston does Fife recognize as his plane from Washington arrives in that city?

8. What reasons does Fife give Alicia that his marriage to Amy was wrong?

9. Why does Fife muse Malcolm and Diana do not care about his account of his life?

10. When Fife is asked about Joan Baez and Malcolm comments, “That’s a heartbreaker, man” (130), to what does Fife note the comment refers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the following passage: “That’s all, just numbers, [Fife] thinks. What’s the matter with him? He’s not stupid. Be why can’t he read and interpret those numbers and as a result know that the economy is in decent shape, at least for the foreseeable future? Or not. Maybe the stock market is about to tank” (78). Explicate the implications for Fife of the passage.

Essay Topic 2

Consider the following passage:

He likes the mingled odor of cigarettes and sweat and minty shampoo. He can’t catch the scent of much, but he can smell her. Young women, their scent is different and better than that of middle-aged and older women. It’s as if desire and longing for desire have distinct and different odors. When Emma leans down in the morning to kiss his cheek before leaving for their production company office downtown, he inhales the smell of English breakfast tea and unscented soap. The odor of a longing for desire. This young woman, Sloan, she smells of desire itself (7-8).

What tone does the passage convey? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the following passage:

But after these ten years away, it can’t be all that painful now, [Fife] assures himself. He’s no longer afraid of the shame that he once associated with the mere mention of the name of the place. He’s a different person now. People change. What harm can come to his new life by setting that town alongside it? Even if the town is altogether unchanged, which he doubts, it won’t threaten his hard-won balance and momentum. Not anymore. He’s a different person now. They are no longer in conflict, Fife and his hometown, Fife’s present and his shameful past (124).

Does the novel bear out the assertion of the passage? How or how not?

(see the answer keys)

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