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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. How many times has Flannigan been married?
2. What does the day nurse do with Joe?
3. At what age does Kareen remain in Joe's mind?
4. What does Joe need most?
5. What does Joe do when he realizes he has a number of visitors?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does Joe envision his nurses?
2. What is Joe's first response to what the nurse communicates to him?
3. Why does Bonham lose track of everything and what does he do?
4. What is the response to Joe's offer and Joe's reaction?
5. What is Bonham's initial thought when asked what he wants and why do you think this is so?
6. What does the little guy waiting for the train with Joe say? How does Joe answer him? What do they do then?
7. What happens to Joe in his third year in the hospital?
8. Describe Bonnie Flannigan and what does she tell Joe?
9. What does Joe think about to try and use his mind?
10. What does Bonham realize he wants?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
It is obvious even in the first few chapters that Joe Bonham is severely injured. Later, the reader learns the extent of his injuries. Discuss one of the following:
1. What is the extent of Joe's injuries and is it realistic that he would have survived such a situation in the early part of the 20th century? Does this lack of realism make a difference in reading the book? Give examples to support your thesis.
2. Would you have preferred death over an existence such as Joe's after his injury? Why or why not? Would it be moral to end Joe's life if he makes it very clear that is his wish? Explain fully.
3. Discuss the concept of quality of life over quantity of days, using examples from the text and your personal experience.
Essay Topic 2
When one is unconscious, there is no such thing as time, and when fading in and out, people feel time bunch up--like women in labor for three days saying it seems like ten hours. Considering he may have been like this for two years, Bonham feels a panicky dread. He needs to "trap" time and get back into the world. Discuss one of the following:
1. How does Joe Bonham think of time and eventually "trap" time?
2. What are the ways humans measure time and why does Bonham have such difficulty figuring out a system to measure time? Why do you think he wants to know about the passage of time?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the construct of time? Use examples both from the text and your own experience.
Essay Topic 3
Joe Bonham wonders why people are so inconsiderate, and feels more like he is coming out of ether rather than hung over, and is tired of hearing that his father is dead and going home. Father can die only once, so the phone must be part of a dream.
1. Joe is lying in a VA hospital with horrific injuries. He feels like he is coming out of ether. He is. The world at the moment seems unreal to him. Explain the flashbacks and images that Joe has in his head at the beginning of the book.
2. Almost all of this book is written as flashbacks to Joe's life before he was injured. How did this narrative technique enhance the book? Given Joe's injuries, discuss any other options the author may have had to tell the story.
3. How did the fact that this book is almost entirely flashbacks affect the pace? What about the plot? How did it enhance or obscure the themes?
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This section contains 1,397 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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