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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 the author compare the riding light to?

2. What did the captain's ship represent to Legatt while he was swimming in the sea?

3. How did the stranger kill his victim?

4. What does the captain cite as the chief mate's "dominant trait"?

5. Who finds it necessary to find a logical reason for every occurrence that comes his way?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the captain give Legatt as they part ways? What significance does one item have?

2. How does the skipper feel about Legatt? Why was Legatt on board the Sephora?

3. How does the captain describe the state of Leggatt during the exodus from the gulf?

4. Why does the captain's order for all hands to turn in without setting an anchor watch astonish the rest of the crew?

5. What characterizes the chief mate of the unnamed ship's opinion on the story of the murder by Leggatt?

6. What is significant about Leggatt's relation of how he avoided discovery by the steward?

7. What is signified by the stranger's speech after he hears the plight of the newly-made captain?

8. How does the unnamed captain comport himself towards the Sephora's skipper?

9. What does the captain do after telling the crew to turn in without an anchor watch? Why is this significant?

10. What danger lies in taking the ship as close as possible to the islands the ship is approaching?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compose an analytical essay concerning the manner in which the unnamed captain and Leggatt are complementary and parallel to one another. What are their fundamental similarities? What unites them? What characterizes their unity and their companionship with one another? In what ways are they different? What characterizes the nature of their differences? How do the differences of each cohere with the other's? What is the end result of this cohesion? Why do they work well together? How do they achieve their end?

Essay Topic 2

The captain literally risks it all to protect Legatt, a man he hardly knows. What risks does he take? Specify the details of the actions/risks the captain takes and explain why he would take those risks for someone he barely knows.

Essay Topic 3

A major theme of the book, though not directly articulated, is that of the difference between prudence and imprudence, and the essentiality of the former to justice. Compose an analytical essay which examines the various situations of The Secret Sharer into which prudential assessment plays a role. Why is prudence so important to the situation? In what way does imprudence cause trouble for those involved? How does prudence achieve the proper end? What is the relationship between prudence and justice?

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