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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. Why does Father not go to the Pole with Perry?

2. With whom is Father planning to travel to the North Pole?

3. What does Father see in his bathroom mirror after he returns?

4. What does Father think about when he sees the new immigrants?

5. Where does Evelyn go when she doesn't find Tateh and the girl one day?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does socialite Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish bring Houdini and circus freaks to her house?

2. What idea does Tateh have that makes them money.

3. What does Tateh notice about The Girl on their train trip.

4. What crime is Harry K. Shaw accused of committing?

5. What is Perry's attitude towards the Esquimo people?

6. How is Father sent off on his trip with the Perry expedition to the North Pole?

7. What does The Boy think bronze statues are?

8. What causes Harry K. Shaw to propose marriage to Evelyn Nesbit?

9. What does The Boy recover from the trash?

10. What does the Franklin Novelty Company do with Tateh's books?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write your opinion of E. L. Doctorow's writing style. Include such things as his omitting quotation marks and writing in very short sentences. Cite specific passages in the novel that you think either did or did not convey (1) the feeling of the characters, (2) the imagery of the day, (3) the suspense of the plot, or any other concept you feel the novel addresses. How much does Doctorow's use of fictionalized real characters add to the interest of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

On their trip out of New York, Tateh observes a completely different country from what he had known in New York. Doctorow says that for the first time Tateh began to think he might be able to live in America. Use examples of what Tateh and The Girl see on their trip that are so different from anything they had ever seen in New York and explain how those sights began to change Tateh's outlook on America. Then look at Freud's visit to New York and what they force him to go see. Give your opinion as to whether Freud might have had a different opinion of America if he had seen the more rural side of the country.

Essay Topic 3

Write a paper on child labor. Express your opinion about child labor at the turn of the 19th-20th century and in places in the world today. Perhaps Charles Dickens is the most famous novelist to address the issue of child labor. Doctorow describes child labor in America in the 1890s and early 1900s in two brief passages. One has to do with child abductions and sexual abuse and the other has to do with the reason manufacturers liked child labor. Your paper should use those examples and discuss the harmful effects on children when they are do devalued.

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