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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 had also happened that day in the picture as told in Chapter Three?

2. What is Will’s random thought in Chapter One?

3. What does Will do when he realizes who is in the man in the elevator in Chapter Two?

4. What is Will’s full name that he tells the reader in Chapter One?

5. What does Will explain to Dani in Chapter Three?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is a Penny Drop? What does Will tell the reader about a Penny Drop in Chapter One?

2. Who was Buck to Shawn as described in Chapter Two? What does Buck give Shawn and teach him?

3. What does Will say he usually does when bad things happen? Why can he not do this on the day that Shawn dies? Why does he think the moon is “lucky”?

4. Why does Will tell Dani he needs the gun in Chapter Three? Why does Will explain The Rules to Dani?

5. Who does Will think has killed Shawn in Chapter One? Why does Will think this?

6. Who gets on the elevator in Chapter Three? How do Will and the new person first interact?

7. What does Will think of when a man gets on the elevator in Chapter Two and starts looking at Will when Will is not looking?

8. How does Shawn come to teach Will The Rules as explained in Chapter Three? What does Will feel after he is taught the Rules?

9. What are the people in Will’s neighborhood trained to do when there are gunshots, as described by Will in Chapter One?

10. In Chapter Two, how is the man who gets onto the elevator with Will described? How does Will find out he is Buck?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Long Way Down is intertextual with the story A Christmas Carol. Buck and other characters are decorated with gold chains, and smoke plays a role in each new scene, similar to A Christmas Carol. In A Christmas Carol, the main character is visited by a ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. In Long Way Down, what do the ghosts represent for Will? Are they of the past, present, and future? What does each character represent to him? Write an argument comparing Long Way Down's ghosts to a Christmas Carol's ghosts, and why Long Way Down shows its ghosts in this way.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the character of Will Holloman to Mikey Holloman. How are these characters similar or different to one another? How are their actions related? How are their words related to one another? Why does the novel set these two characters up as foils of one another? What does their mirroring suggest about the novel's structure, and eventual ending? Write a response with at least four textual examples.

Essay Topic 3

Generational patterns are repeated in Long Way Down. Characters are mirrors of one another. Literary devices using mirroring, such as a mise en abyme and repetition are used. At the end Chapter Six, after Frick is done speaking, Will looks into the elevator and sees only himself. What do you make of this mirroring on a narrative and stylistic level? What does it say about the content of the novel and the novel's eventual message? Write an argument pulling from at least two of the examples above in addition to two other examples from the novel of your choosing.

(see the answer keys)

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