View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is Matt's office located?

2. What was the profession of Matt and Patrick's mother when she met Norm?

3. Whose sounds of lovemaking wakes Penny up in the middle of the night when she is sleeping in Rob's room?

4. What does Penny eat with her mother when she goes to visit her after the AIDS conference?

5. Who books a hotel room for the former Nicotine inhabitants on their second night of flight?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when the locksmith arrives at Nicotine?

2. Why do Rob and Jazz (along with Penny) go to the DJD for a week?

3. What do Jazz, Rob, and Sorry decide to do after the encounter with Matt at Nicotine?

4. What does Penny learn about her parents' marriage from Amalia?

5. What is the political atmosphere like in the main (contemporary) timeline of the novel?

6. Where do Rob, Sorry, and Jazz stay in Taos? Why?

7. What is revealed about Matt's relationship with Amalia in the course of the narrative?

8. Where are Jazz's housemates when Matt first comes to see her? What do they do?

9. What does Amalia discover when she first goes to Nicotine?

10. How does Jazz justify her relationship with Matt when she first tells Penny about it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss three examples of foreshadowing and/or red herrings in Nicotine. What event is foreshadowed? How is it foreshadowed? Does the action play out according to the clues? What effect does each example have on the reader?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the symbolism of nicotine in the novel. What does nicotine in its various forms (chew, cigarettes, cigars, etc.) represent to the main characters? Why is the squatter house named Nicotine? How does irony apply to this name?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the importance of setting in Nicotine. Where does the main bulk of the novel take place? What is significant about this setting? How do the different settings in the story compare with one another? What moods do they evoke?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 872 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample