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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. Who is Gary Nixon?

2. What evangelist goes to jail before White can help the evangelist write a book?

3. When do Lyla and Mel decide to separate?

4. What often makes White tearful during the church services?

5. What does Mel tell his parents after meeting Tom?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did White plan to do while scuba diving in Hawaii? What changed his mind?

2. Who was Michael Piazza, and what did he offer White?

3. What does Wright find confusing at first when he is at the new cathedral in Dallas?

4. Who is R. J. Rushdoony? What is his view about homosexuality and White's thoughts about that?

5. What does White say about working with Falwell on the book, If I Should Die Before I Wake?

6. What happens to end White's relationship with Tom Montgomery?

7. Why does White decide to accept Piazza's offer?

8. Who is David and how does White meet him?

9. How does White's parents react to his telling them of his homosexuality?

10. What do Lyla and Mel finally do? How do the children respond?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Stranger at the Gate is a memoir by Mel White. Discuss the following:

1. Define the word "genre" in the context of literary criticism.

2. Why do you think literature is categorized by genre?

3. Does it help to know how a book is categorized as to its genre before reading it? Explain.

4. Memoir used to be considered inferior to what are considered "the classics." Why do you think this is so? Do you believe a book such as Stranger at the Gate is inferior to something such as A Tale of Two Cities? Explain.

5. What is your favorite genre and why?

Essay Topic 2

Homosexuality is one of the predominant themes of Stranger at the Gate. Discuss the following:

1. Research the history of homosexuality in the United States and write an informative essay about what you find. Relate the information to what you read in Stranger at the Gate.

2. Engaging in homosexual acts used to be a crime in the United States. It was only in 2003 that laws against homosexual acts were declared invalid. Do you think homosexual acts should be legislated? Upon what basis?

3. Many other countries still have laws against homosexuality--some of them outlaw only male-male sex; others any homosexual sex. Research one country that still outlaws homosexual sex and compare/contrast their culture in regards to religion and sex to that of the United States.

Essay Topic 3

Mel White considers himself a child of the Religious Right, raised in evangelical nondenominational churches by an incredibly devout family, always in the thick of the evangelical movement. Discuss the following:

1. Research the history of the religious right in the United States and write an informative essay of what you learned.

2. Write an argument/persuasive essay on the following question: Is being a religious fanatic better than having no beliefs?

3. How reliable do you think Mel White is as a narrator when it comes to his perception of the religious right? Discuss fully using examples from the text.

(see the answer keys)

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