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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 does Will ask Father Weatherbee to do?

2. Whom does everyone keep comparing Leslie to?

3. What does Bernie want Will to do?

4. Complete the quote, "Everybody thinks that there are only two things: war which is a kind of life in death, and peace which is ______."

5. What does the doctor think is wrong with Allison?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Will take Allison when they leave the greenhouse?

2. What skills do the three old guys who Will befriends in the convalescent home possess?

3. Why does Will get into a fight with Kitty at the nursing home?

4. What makes Allison feel like she needs another person in her life?

5. What happens to Will's guns at the end of the novel?

6. What is the first thing Kitty says after Will recognizes her when she wakes him up in his car in the parking lot?

7. When Will is thinking things over in his Mercedes, what does he decide the name of the century should be?

8. What plan do Allison and Will make for their futures?

9. After Will falls into the greenhouse, what is it that makes Allison think she knows who he is before she sees his face?

10. What does Will dream that the country club becomes in the future while he is sleeping in his car?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Will and Allison are both attuned to nature, noticing clouds, grass, trees, birds, ants, and so on, throughout the course of the novel. Discuss Walker Percy's use of nature in the novel and how the appreciation of nature contributes to Will and Allison's characters.

Essay Topic 2

Will and Allison both have epiphanies in the beginning of the novel, each realizing something important about life that will shape how that character reacts throughout the rest of the novel. Write an essay in which you discuss what Will and Allison each discover about life and how each character's discovery affects his or her relationships throughout the rest of the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Like many novels set in small Southern towns, in The Second Coming the characters are constantly concerned about how others perceive them. Choose three characters from the novel and write an essay about how each deals with the issue of how others perceive them.

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