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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. Where do Father and The Boy go in spite of the tension surrounding Coalhouse's being at large?

2. Why is it a busy time of the year for Father's business?

3. Where do the cars come from that are used in the attacks?

4. How does Morgan dress?

5. What happens to Coalhouse after he comes out of the museum with his hands raised?

Short Essay Questions

1. What becomes fashionable because of Morgan's obsession with Egyptology?

2. What causes Younger Brother to run out of the parlor one evening after dinner?

3. How have the fortunes of Tateh and The girl changed?

4. Why does J. P. Morgan want to meet with Henry Ford?

5. What does Younger Brother do that the family is completely unaware of?

6. Why does Father return alone to New York, leaving the family in Atlantic City.

7. That spring, what happens at the Matteawan State Prison Farm?

8. What brings Younger Brother back to life after his breakup with Evelyn?

9. What happens to Sarah at the rally?

10. What plans do Father and Mother make to get away from the Coalhouse problem?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper about the transformation of Tateh in the novel from the time he was scandalized by his wife and Evelyn until he romps on the beach in Atlantic City. Discuss what you think makes the transformation. Is there a tendency for the poor to be judgmental of the morals of the rich? If so, why? How does affluence change a persons attitude toward all things in society? What are the good and bad points of such changes?

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

Describe the rags-to-riches story of Tateh, aka Baron Ashkenazy. Tateh's story is the embodiment of the American dream--the poor immigrant who eventually achieves success. While you write this account focus on the moral shift in Tateh's thinking. Note the difference in his uptight morality that drove his wife and Evelyn away in the early part of the story and his romping with Mother in Atlantic City as the reinvented Baron Ashkenazy. There are even sexual overtones to the scene where they are searching for The Boy and The Girl and eventually they marry.

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