View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does "The Shan Van Vocht" mean?
(a) The Lovely Dark Land.
(b) The Conflict of Past.
(c) The Poor Old Woman.
(d) The Land of Poverty.

2. What key theme of the novel is introduced in Chapter 1?
(a) The disappearance of the boy's uncle.
(b) The conflict between the police and the IRA.
(c) The death of the boy's sister.
(d) The conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants.

3. Who tells the boy that some families are devil-haunted?
(a) Brigid.
(b) Bernadette.
(c) Frances.
(d) Katie.

4. In Chapter 2, the boy remembers being trapped where?
(a) In his sister's bedroom.
(b) In the church after service.
(c) In the basement of the distillery.
(d) In the secret passage of Grianan.

5. What color is the light above the graves of Francis and Frances' parents?
(a) Green.
(b) White.
(c) Blue.
(d) Red.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Tony McIlhenny disappear to?

2. In October of 1952, where is the boy sent to live?

3. Who is Billy Mahon?

4. How do the boy's father's parents die?

5. During the war, when the alarms go off because of the air raids, where does the family hide?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are superstitions introduced in Chapter 1?

2. What strong religious beliefs of his community does the boy share in the beginning of Chapter 1?

3. Describe Crazy Joe.

4. Who is Tony and what happened to him?

5. What local belief surrounds the Field of the Disappeared?

6. When the boy's father takes him and his brother Liam out on the boat, what does his father reveal to them and why does it make the boy feel uncomfortable?

7. Describe the events surrounding the distillery and what happens to it.

8. How do we see the boy react and respond to his circumstances in Chapter 1 instead of accepting them at face value?

9. How is the novel The Shan Van Vocht an example of female symbolism?

10. Why does the boy try to run away in Chapter 3?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 677 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample