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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 does Harold Hill live?

2. How many machete killings occur on the second day?

3. How does Michael characterize the murder victims?

4. Who does Carrie Rose sleep with at the Coastown Princess Hotel?

5. Who do Lieutenant Singer and his wife see when they go to the beach?

Short Essay Questions

1. How proficient is Peter with a gun?

2. What various motivations are ascribed for the murder?

3. What upsets Brooks Campbell about Peter's story?

4. Who is Francis Cichoski?

5. How is the murder on the beach similar to the murder of Francis Cichoski, and what is the significance of the similarity?

6. Describe Peter MacDonald

7. Describe the meeting in Lathrop Wells, Nevada.

8. Before Damian sets off his bomb at the airport, the book says he's "forced to make a decision." Describe the decision and its consequences.

9. Does Damian Rose have the opportunity to kill Peter if he wants to?

10. Why does the U.S. government want to get rid of the Roses?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider Peter as the protagonist of the novel.

1) Typically, the protagonist drives the action of a novel forward. Peter is the heroic figure in the novel, but does he drive the action, or is he merely manipulated by events (or other characters)?

2) Typically, the protagonist also undergoes a change during a novel. How does Peter change over the course of the novel? What does he learn about himself and the world?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the necessity for violence in the novel. At the end of the novel, Hill thinks that it "never ends." Is violence in the novel an unending cycle that is impossible to escape? The novel indicates that Damian comes from a violent household. Does violence beget violence, in the world just as in individual families? When is violence right or wrong in the novel? Is it necessary to kill Damian Rose at the end of the book? Is it necessary or just to hang the three murderers at the beginning of the book? Is it necessary for Peter to kill Harold Hill?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss love in the novel. The main villains are a husband and wife, and the main heroic characters are involved in a relationship also. Do any of the characters in the novel love each other? What obstacles are there to love in the novel? How is love related to sex? How is love related to trust?

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