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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Molly say about her room?

2. What has Joe Turner come with?

3. What does Loomis say he's forgotten?

4. What does Loomis say when Mattie asks what he'll do if he can't find his wife?

5. What are Seth and Bynum doing at the beginning of Act 2, Scene 2?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the importance of financial independence to characters in the story.

1) Seth wants to gain financial independence by starting his own business. What stops him from achieving his goal? Why is this an important goal for him?

2) Molly doesn't want to be "bought." She wants to be independent, while not working. What kind of independence does she achieve? How does money play into her independence?

3) Why does Mattie continue to work while she is with Jeremy? Does her working keep them separate?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss what children gain from their parents in the play.

1) Seth learned metalworking from his father, and many of the characters learned trades from their parents. What significance does this have in the story? Is a person fated or destined to a certain life based on their parents?

2) What significance is there to Selig's story of his great-grandfather captaining slave ships and his father retrieving slaves for plantation owners? What about Bynum's inheritance of spiritual power from his father the healer?

3) What does Zonia gain from her father and from her mother? What does she inherit from them?

Essay Topic 3

Herald Loomis says that he is trying to find a place to fit. Discuss this concept in the play.

1) Which of the characters' have found places to fit in the world? How do they fit into their destinies?

2) Is there only one place, one destiny, for each character? Is Bynum able to "match" people to the places they fit, like suggesting that Jeremy go play in the guitar contests?

3) What makes a character fit into his or her place? Does this necessarily involve a job or a relationship?

4) Can Herald Loomis be successful in finding a place to fit in the world? Will finding Martha help him do this?

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This section contains 443 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample