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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. In "Safe Harbor," what is David's intent when he tells his mother that she is hallucinating?

2. In "Safe Harbor," what are the black boxes that David mentions the worker using in the beginning of the story?

3. In "Half-Life," what is David covered in when he flees his grandmother's house?

4. In "Night of the Living Rez," how old is David?

5. In "Safe Harbor," what has David come to the clinic to bring his mother?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "The Name Means Thunder," how does David's mother's behavior change once Bedogi is in the house?

2. In "Half-Life," what incident early in the story demonstrates how much time David has begun losing to his drug use?

3. In "The Name Means Thunder," how does Paige's window screen end up playing an important role in the plot?

4. In "Earth, Speak," why is Fellis so angry at Daryl?

5. In "Safe Harbor," what is the double meaning of the question David asks when he is brought into the emergency room?

6. In "Night of the Living Rez," what is David's rhetorical purpose in describing the details of how his mother is driving as she questions him about his father?

7. In "Safe Harbor," when David is discussing his and his mother's trauma, what cryptic comment hints to the reader that he has yet to reveal some major source of trauma?

8. What aspects of the narrative voice in "The Name Means Thunder" clarify for the reader the time period in which David is telling these stories?

9. At the end of "Night of the Living Rez," how is David's mother's behavior similar to her behavior near the end of "Earth, Speak"?

10. In "Smokes Last," how do David and Tyson end up breaking a window?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"Half-Life" is not the only story in this collection where water plays a symbolic role. Choose another story where water seems to play such a role. Is water being used to convey the same kinds of ideas, or does the water seem to play a different role in this second story? Write an essay that compares and contrasts the symbolic use of water in these two stories. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from both stories, citing any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

In "Night of the Living Rez," Talty makes a claim for Native representation by Native peoples. How does his own biography support his implicit claim that he is qualified to tell the stories he tells in this collection? Where did he grow up? What relationship do the book's characters have to people in the author's real life? Did Talty have experiences in his own life that these stories reflect? Use outside research into Talty's life, including interviews he has given on this subject, to construct and support an argument about his qualification to tell the stories in Night of the Living Rez. Support your argument with evidence drawn from your outside research and from throughout the story collection, citing all quoted evidence and evidence from outside sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Meekew appears first in "Get Me Some Medicine," but this is not his only appearance in the stories in Night of the Living Rez. He appears again in "Half-Life." Is his characterization in this story consistent with his characterization in the earlier story? Does he play a similar role? How does his appearance in "Half-Life" augment what the reader already knows about him? How does having read many stories about David's life in between these two appearances impact the reader's reaction to Meekew? In retrospect, is the vicious beating Fellis gives Meekew in "Get Me Some Medicine" more or less shocking after reading more stories about David and Fellis? Write an essay that takes and defends a position on Talty's purpose in bringing Meekew back into the collection in "Half-Life." Support your assertions with evidence drawn from both stories. Cite all quoted evidence in MLA format.

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