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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 Leaphorn ask his friend?

2. Who does Mrs. Bailey say has called Perry?

3. Where does Jim Chee decide to visit?

4. Who is Jim Chee?

5. What are the dancers doing that Chee is watching?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe what Joe Leaphorn finds at the crime scene Kennedy asks him to investigate.

2. Who picks up Chee at the airport and what does he observe about the men?

3. What does Leaphorn find when he searches the luggage of Hilario Madrid- Perez for clues?

4. Who does Leaphorn wish he could talk over the case with and why can't he?

5. Describe Agnes Tsosie's visit to the doctor.

6. How do the members of the tribal council feel about the proposed bypass? How does Tamana think he can get elected to the council?

7. What does Janet say about one of McDermott's clients who is a real estate developer?

8. What is Jim Chee's response to Mary's letter?

9. Why hasn't The Client paid Fleck the rest of the money owed Fleck?

10. What has Henry Highhawk asked the Smithsonian to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There are a number of themes that run as a thread throughout the novel. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Trace the development of the theme of stolen artifacts. Use specific examples to illustrate how this theme is expressed. Analyze the examples and offer an analysis of how the idea of stolen artifacts informs the entire novel.

2. Trace the development of the theme of greed. Use specific examples to illustrate how this theme is expressed. Analyze the examples and offer an analysis of how greed seems to be more a part of the predominant culture of the United States versus that of the Navajo Indians.

3. Trace the development of the theme of violence. Use specific examples to illustrate how this theme is expressed. Analyze the examples and offer an analysis as to why this theme is central to the novel's plot.

Essay Topic 2

In most fiction, readers would like all the loose ends to be neatly "tied up." Discuss the following:

1. Do you think Talking God is successful as a detective novel? Why or why not.

2. What about this book would motivate you to read another of Tony Hillerman series about Joe Leaphorn and the Navajo? What would discourage you from doing so?

3. Were all the "loose ends" satisfactorily settled for you? Why or why not.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the following:

1. Choose two incidences in Talking God and compare/contrast the way the Navajo culture and the western, white culture view those incidents.

2. Write an argument/persuasion essay addressing the idea of assimilation versus a group keeping their own culture when they live within a larger culture.

3. Conduct 2 interviews of Native Americans or persons from a different culture who have moved to the United States and ask them about the idea of assimilation versus merging into the predominent culture of the United States.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,073 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample