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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 Claire tell Henry she thinks about him?

2. What does Henry tell Myra in answer to her request?

3. What does Joe die of?

4. What accident does Henry cause on his way out of the interview?

5. What does Will say when he sees Henry on the tracks?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the importance of Dodge City for Henry?

2. What happens to Henry and Claire's daughter?

3. What gets Henry out of New York?

4. Describe Henry's interview with Gibbs Pratt.

5. What had Will done in the war?

6. Describe Henry's state, in Chapter 13, as he drives eastward.

7. What augury does Henry find on his trip?

8. Describe Joe's death.

9. What are Henry's thoughts when he arrives in St. Louis?

10. What does Henry remember of his father at the funeral?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What purpose does Henry's secret have in the novel? What is the secret, and how does our ignorance of the secret (as well as our speculation, as Henry recounts his life stories) affect our reading experience? What do we expect the secret to be?

Essay Topic 2

How does Abbey feel about death? Henry Lightcap approaches it with bravado and panache, but what are Abbey's feelings about it, as the author?

Essay Topic 3

Assess the claim that in Henry Lightcap, Edward Abbey is dramatizing Thoreau's instruction to 'simplify, simplify, simplify'? In what ways is Henry Lightcap simplifying his life? In what ways is he always complicating it? What is the value of the simplicity he espouses?

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