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. How does Jeannette end up hurting herself in Part 2?

2. Why does Rex take the children to the zoo?

3. How does the Walls' financial situation improve for a time in Pheonix?

4. Rose Mary hopes to do what while they are living in Phoenix?

5. What happens to Jeannette when she first starts school in Blythe?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the author feel towards her parents in light of the circumstances of her childhood?

2. What are Rex's feelings about how the family finances should be handled? How does he manage money?

3. Why does Rex dislike staying with Rose Mary's mother (Grandma Smith)?

4. Why does Jeannette ask the cab driver to go back to the apartment after she sees her mother from afar in Part 1?

5. What is Rex's reaction to Rose Mary's plan to travel to West Virginia and what happens when the family gets ready to go?

6. How does Rose Mary try to make the family's Christmas in Phoenix special, and what happens to ruin it for them all?

7. How was Jeannette's childhood atypical?

8. What incident precipitates the family's leaving Battle Mountain for Phoenix?

9. How does Rose Mary's philosophy of life make it difficult for her to hold a job?

10. What is Rose Mary's reply in Part 1 to Jeannette's asking her what she should tell others about her mother?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Although the Walls parents frequently put their children in dangerous situations, it is obvious that they do not believe that their philosophy of parenting is flawed. Discuss Rex and Rose Mary's philosophy of parenting.

1) How do they believe children should be treated? What do they think of as their responsibility as parents?

2) What do they consider the children's responsibilities within the family?

3) Give examples in which Rex or Rose Mary fail to act in a manner that would be considered responsible by most people. How do they justify their actions within the context of their philosophy of life?

Essay Topic 2

Money is not important to Rose Mary and Rex Walls, which is demonstrated throughout the book. Although it may sometimes appear that the couple's actions are somewhat amoral or selfish, they are actually living according to their own set of moral values that do not agree with those of society. What are the values of Rose Mary and Rex and how do they demonstrate them to both their children and the world? What is it that really matters to Rex and Rose Mary?

Essay Topic 3

Rose Mary tells Jeannette, as an adult, that her values are "all confused." What does Rose Mary mean?

1) How does Rose Mary view Jeannette's life and career?

2) What are Rose Mary's values like and how do Jeannette's differ?

3) What values or ideas do you think that they agree on? What is important to both of them?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,031 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample