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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 Parker want to buy from Dick?

2. What type of event do Dick and his sons manage for Joxer?

3. What does Dick think about the cocaine smuggling deal?

4. What does Dick drop off his sons, Charlie and Tom, to do?

5. Elsie says that Dick is _____________.

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Joxer's bad luck change the immediate future for more than himself?

2. How does Dick's attraction to Elsie begin?

3. What is Dick's employment pattern and how does he plan to make money to finish his boat?

4. How does Dick misread the message that Elsie sends when she tells him to leave her with the secret of their affair?

5. What is revealed about Dick's personality in Chapter 2 when he and his sons dig for illegal clams in the bird sanctuary?

6. How can Elsie be noted as the heroine of Chapter 10 and who would be the antithesis of that?

7. How does the author use irony in the scenario on the dock with the cops and the drug-sniffing dog?

8. Compare and contrast Dick and Elsie's positions regarding legal activities.

9. How does Dick feel about the fantasies that Elsie finds erotic?

10. Describe Dick's experience when he goes to Miss Perry's house to thank her for the loan.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Project into the future ten years and write a brief synopsis for the lives of Dick, May, Elsie and Parker. Be sure to include emotional states as well as physical characteristics, geographic locations, work, hobbies, socialization, etc.

Essay Topic 2

Casey uses more than one instance of irony in the book. Cite at least two examples you can identify in the novel and note why they are examples of irony.

Essay Topic 3

Casey uses humor in the story to both entertain and convey character. Cite at least two examples which you find especially humorous.

(see the answer keys)

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