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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 say she was doing while Sandra was dying?
2. What does the narrator say Rudy is aware of as Francis approaches Gerald’s grave?
3. Where does Francis Phelan find his family’s graves?
4. What does the narrator say about the brotherhood that joins Francis and Rudy?
5. How did Aldo Campione die?
Short Essay Questions
1. What misfortune besets Helen after she returns to the Mission with Francis and Rudy?
2. What expression does Francis use when something is finally and absolutely concluded?
3. What does Jack say Francis could have if he got straight, and what is Francis’ response?
4. Describe Francis’ baseball career.
5. What effect is created by the author’s sophisticated vocabulary?
6. Describe the brotherhood Francis and Rudy share.
7. How did Francis’ father die?
8. How did Francis end up with a job shoveling dirt at the cemetery?
9. Where did Francis Phelan’s family lie in the pecking order of the cemetery?
10. What state is Sandra in when Francis, Helen and Rudy and Pee Wee return from the Gilded Cage?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
What is the genre of Ironweed? What type of story is it, and how does it resist categorization? What kinds of evidence does William Kennedy give you, as a reader, for placing the novel in a genre category? Using examples from the text, make an argument for what category of novel Ironweed belongs to.
Essay Topic 2
Where is the climax of this book? Are there different climaxes? What questions does each climax resolve? What questions does each climax leave unanswered?
Essay Topic 3
Evaluate your own reading of Ironweed—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.
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This section contains 842 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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