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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. During the pre-work physical, what did Hamper do against his better judgment?

2. According to Hamper's theory, why did the shop-rats listen to that kind of music?

3. Why did Hamper's dad often denounce African-Americans?

4. What happened one day when Hamper left journalism class on drugs?

5. Why did Joanie and Hamper get married when she became pregnant?

Short Essay Questions

1. What promises did the Plant Manager make during the factory meeting? How did Hamper's retelling of the speech change its tone?

2. Who were Lightnin' and Same-O? What did their lives say about Hamper's future?

3. What system did Dale and Hamper rig up at work? How did this again change Hamper's attitude toward his job?

4. Hamper said that Same-O was quite likely the only genius he ever met at the General Motors factory (pg 66). Why did he say this?

5. Hamper ends Chapter 3 with the sentence, "The money was right, even if we weren't" (pg 43). What does this mean?

6. What is Hamper's first exposure to the true culture of the Cab Shop? How did this dramatically change his attitude toward work?

7. Hamper's father, though not a model of determination or reliability, often berated his son because of his poor grades. How did his cursing set the tone of their conversations about school?

8. At the end of Chapter 1, what did Hamper reveal about his hopes for the future? What insight did he show about the past?

9. How did poetry temporarily draw Hamper out of his slide toward the factory? How might this have paved the way for more writing in the future?

10. At the end of Chapter 4, Hamper reveals his place in the present time and lets the reader know that the events took place some nine years before he wrote about them. What effect does this have on the reader's perception of the book?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How did Roy's crackup prefigure Hamper's own mental breakdown? What role did Hamper play on Roy's story, and how did Roy's compare to his own?

Essay Topic 2

Why did Hamper always remember the man who came late for the GM work call, the first time he worked at the factory (pg 32)? How might his thoughts about the incident have changed as he moved in and out of GM?

Essay Topic 3

What is the effect of Hamper's family tree as the reader moves through the book? Why would he give such detail about his extended family work history?

(see the answer keys)

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