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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. What distracted Hamper most from the breakdowns?

2. While meeting the producer from 60 Minutes, why was Hamper nervous?

3. Why does Hamper want to avoid his grandfather at the family reunion?

4. Why was Hamper given a $2,700 check?

5. When the Good Times Lounge sued Hamper, how much money did the owner want?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Hamper's fellow factory workers respond to the article in the Wall Street Journal? Given the tone of this part of the story, where did Hamper actually get his happiness?

2. What was the purpose of Hamper's food matching game (pgs 78-79)? What effect does the game have to the writing of this scene?

3. What kind of relationship did Gino have with his men? Why did this lead to his eventual transfer away from the Rivet Line?

4. According to Hamper, why does the reading public not want to read about the working man? Is this a fair assessment?

5. What kind of supervisor was Gino? How did Hamper respond to his leadership?

6. At the beginning of Chapter 5, how did Hamper portray the employees of the Michigan Employment Security Commission? Is this a fair picture?

7. In the Epilogue, Hamper shows the conflict between his mindset as a shop-rat and his time outside the factory in therapy. How did he show this and which attitude was stronger in his mind?

8. What conversation did Hamper and his grandfather have during the family reunion? How does this fittingly illustrate the difference in their generations?

9. What new vehicle was the factory hired to build? How was this, written in Hamper's account of life, a sign of the times?

10. What difficulty did Hamper run into as he tried to get a visitor's pass for Alex Kotlowitz, the reporter from the Wall Street Journal? How does this difficulty illustrate the vast difference between the factory worker and the corporate man, even within the same company?

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

Hamper often uses short sentences comprised of a couple nouns and no verbs. What is the effect of these sentences to the reader? Do they propel or slow the flow of the story?

Essay Topic 3

"Layin' back is a fine reward when you're employed. However, layin' back tends to wear thin when it itself becomes your job. Gettin' loaded, readin' magazines, staring at the television becomes a rut rather than any form of relaxation" (pg 83). How is this true? What part did unemployment play in Hamper's life? How did it change his opinion about working?

(see the answer keys)

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