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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 Will think the middle drawer of Shawn’s dresser looks like in Chapter One?

2. What does Will think the yellow tape the police put up does to the crime scene in Chapter One?

3. In Chapter Two, what does Will tell Buck he is going to do?

4. What are Tony and Will talking about in Chapter One?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

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

4. After Will tells Buck what he is going to do, what does Buck tell Will about his plan to follow The Rules in Chapter Two? How does he compare Will to Shawn?

5. What does Will insist to the reader directly after he introduces himself in the beginning of Chapter One? Why does he say he does this?

6. What does Will think of when Buck tells him his tail is showing in Chapter Two?

7. What does Will compare his mother’s eczema to in Chapter One? And how does he turn this into wordplay talking about the grudges in the neighborhood?

8. What happens on the day of the picture that Dani shows to Will in Chapter Three?

9. What does Will describe as a “strange thing” in the beginning of Chapter Two? What does he call this?

10. What does Will think of when the girl in the elevator shows him the picture from her wallet in Chapter Three? Who is in the photo?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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 3

Long Way Down takes place in a very structured format in an elevator, with physical layout representations of the elevator as well as each chapter taking place on a different floor. How and why is this metaphor used? What does it mean for the structure of the novel? What does this metaphor mean for the events that take place? Specifically, look at Chapter Seven and the language around an elevator that is used. Does the meaning of an elevator change throughout the novel? Write an exploratory paper with at least four textual examples.

(see the answer keys)

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