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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 is one thing that worries Nat?

2. What does the flag flying over the Globe indicate?

3. How does Nat leave the hospital?

4. What is one book Arby gives Nat?

5. How did it work that the two Nats were not discovered as being the wrong boys?

Short Essay Questions

1. What unexpected thing happens as Nat is acting and what is the outcome?

2. What do Nat, Gil and Rachel learn about the Nat Field of 1599?

3. How is Sam Gilbourne dressed for his role as Hippolyta?

4. What dos Arby give Nat and what does Nat discover is Arby's full name?

5. What interests the company about Nat and Roper and how does Nick Tooley put Nat into an awkward position?

6. What does Shakespeare tell Nat about soldiers in the theater and what happens with that situation?

7. Why does Nat argue with Arby about Nat's exit and what does Nat do?

8. Where does Nat awaken in Chapter 17 and what does he find out?

9. What intrigues Nurse Stevens about the Nat she is caring for in the isolation unit?

10. What do Nat and his aunt Jen decide to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Nat of 1999 is a about sixteen when the novel opens. Discuss the following:

1. What are some ways that Nat seems like an average sixteen year old? Give examples and why you say the activities are average teen activities.

2. What are some ways that Nat seems older than sixteen? Give specific examples and discuss whether they seem consistent with the character of Nat as he is developed throughout the book.

3. Is it realistic to think Nat could handle the situations that arise in the novel in the ways he does? How much impact do you think Nat's father's suicide had on his growing up faster?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss one of the following:

1. Define irony in literary terms. Discuss the irony of the situation when Nat saves the life of Roper who has been spiteful to Nat over and over again. What other situations contain irony in "King of Shadows"?

2. Define symbolism in literary terms. Discuss the use and meaning of five symbols you choose to analyze from "King of Shadows". What do they symbolize? Is the symbolism obvious? Effective? Does the symbolism contribute to the enjoyment of reading?

3. Discuss five literary devices that occur in King of Shadows and how they are used. Are they effective? Do they add or detract from the reading of the book? Why or why not. Some possible techniques: Allusion, connotation, denouement, dialogue, flashback, figurative language, motif, metaphor, narrator, point of view, simile, mood, and puns.

Essay Topic 3

Oftentimes, a book is more of a character-driven plot rather than action driven, and oftentimes the other way. Some books seem to balance the two. Discuss the following:

1. What do you think it means to say that a plot is character driven? Action driven?

2. How do you think a plot differs if it is character driven versus action driven?

3. Which type of plot do you find more interesting? Why?

4. Do you think it is possible to have a plot where action and character development share equal time? Why or why not.

5. What type of plot do you think the King of Shadows is? Explain your response.

(see the answer keys)

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