View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. The protagonist asks for equipment for what table game?

2. What is the name of the interlocutor’s wife?

3. What is the title of the chapter in Spengler that attracts the protagonist’s attention?

4. To which of the following does the protagonist compare Spengler?

5. Which of the following does the Kid note is featured in the Barnfowl Follies?

Short Essay Questions

1. What “old saw in racing” does the protagonist report (165-66)?

2. Why, per the protagonist, do falling climbers feel peace?

3. How does the protagonist respond to being asked if she is a sex worker?

4. Per the novel, what is a prestige?

5. Why does the protagonist assert she would not have been a good counselor?

6. Why does the protagonist indicate people prefer the idea of fate to the idea of chance?

7. What hope in solving topological problems does the protagonist note?

8. What does the protagonist note is commonly the most interesting thing about philosophers?

9. What does the protagonist cite as her chief gripe with mental health professionals?

10. Why does the protagonist note she was less disturbed at their father’s death than her brother was?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explicate the significance of the name of any one character in the text.

Essay Topic 2

In the novel, some characters are given but one name, while others are given first names and surnames, and still others are accorded names and titles. What significance, if any, accrues to patterns of naming in the novel? If no significance accrues, what purpose might be served by the patterns of naming in the novel? How does Stella Maris bear as much out?

Essay Topic 3

To what other writer’s work in your experience does McCarthy’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 572 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample