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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 kind of car does Evie have?

2. What color is Brandy's eyeshadow?

3. What disease kills Shannon's brother?

4. What has Shannon been slipping into Seth's meals?

5. What does Brandy's father feed his pigs?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe briefly the opening scene of the novel.

2. Why does Evie live in a mansion in the suburbs?

3. What is Shannon's father's strategy for selling his pigs at market?

4. Why is Shannon upset that Evie borrowed her clothes?

5. What is Seth's theory about television?

6. What story does Brandy tell the border policemen to try to get them back into the USA?

7. What happens on the day that Shannon's bandages are removed when she visits the grocery store?

8. What subject is Evie most interested in during the pretend dramas she enacts with Shannon at the department store?

9. Why have Brandy and her comrades come to the open house?

10. What accident does Shane have when he was fifteen?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the novel, each character goes through a transformation. Go through each major character one by one and explains their journey and ultimate conclusion. Be sure to use specifics from the text.

Essay Topic 2

A central image of Shannon's childhood is her clothes burning on the clothesline. How does this event change Shannon? How does Shannon react? How does her reaction give insight to her character at fifteen? Is this the start of her obsession with fire? Why or why not? Be sure to examine the account in the novel and cite any quotations.

Essay Topic 3

Explore Shannon's observations of the television monitor on her infomercial. Upon review of the infomercial, what does she notice? Are people looking at the models? Why or why not? How does the television monitor affect people and why does Shannon find this effect disturbing? How does the television monitor fit in to the other themes in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 535 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample