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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 Johanna hear on the way out of Dallas, which seems like an omen?

2. Where did Jefferson Kyle Kidd grow up?

3. What qualities is Captain Kidd careful to present in his appearance when he reads the news?

4. What kind of tone does Captain Kidd take with Thurber, the printer?

5. How much does Captain Kidd offer Mrs. Gannet, for her to come stay with Johanna overnight?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Johanna saved from being left with Simon and Miss Dillon?

2. How does Mrs. Gannet fare, taking care of Johanna in the hotel room?

3. What arrangements is Captain Kidd making in his letter to his daughters?

4. Who is Almay and what proposition does he make to Captain Kidd?

5. What Jefferson Kidd’s experience at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend?

6. How does Captain Kidd choose his news stories to manage the crowd?

7. What is Captain Kidd’s uniform for his news reading performances?

8. Why is Britt Johnson hesitant to take Johanna to San Antonio himself?

9. What is it that gets a reaction out of Johanna in Chapter 4?

10. How does the narrator characterize the political situation in Texas while Captain Kidd and Johanna are making their trip?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When is News of the World most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 2

What is the role of women in News of the World? How is the difference between men’s worlds and women’s worlds described? How does that definition change according to geography or frontier? What kind of woman will Johanna grow up to be?

Essay Topic 3

In the history of the American frontier, it was not so common for captives to be returned from the Native American tribes to the towns. It was much more common for whites to take Native Americans from their families and install them in residential schools where they were forced to forget their Native culture and language. How does Jiles’ novel act as a kind of connection with, and apology for, this other history, which is only touched tangentially? What emotions does Johanna’s story evoke, that are also connected to that other story?

(see the answer keys)

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