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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 Harry plan to do to make "some big money" (15)?
2. What is Battersby's sister irritated about when she comes downstairs to where Battersby's friends have gathered?
3. Why does Gallows go to the market one Saturday afternoon?
4. On page 32, when Fitz's attitude toward Teena is changing, to what does he compare her way of walking?
5. What technique is used when the narrator says that "Up in the atmosphere thunder roll with laughter"?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does Harry end up holding onto Poor's pack of cigarettes for him?
2. Which of Bat's friends takes photographs, and what is comical about how he does it?
3. To whom does Battersby threaten to complain about his housing situation, and why does he decide against making a complaint?
4. Describe Matilda's conflicting thoughts about Jean's being a sex worker.
5. How does the sentence "I mean, you think it have a lot of obeah and black magic in the West Indies, but if you listen to some of these Nordics" illustrate the unusual aspects of this book's narrative voice?
6. When Jean and Harry go out into the hallway to fix the fuse, what do they discuss?
7. What number does Bat imagine giving his apartment, and why is this important to him?
8. How did Gallows come to meet Battersby and his friends?
9. What does Battersby mean when he tells Alfonso that the weather forecaster is talking about "depression and high pressure" and that these are "things the boys know about" (4)?
10. What is the story of how Gallows came to live in London?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Write an essay in which you analyze the impact that Jean and Harry have on the other characters. Rather than performing a cursory analysis of how Jean and Harry impact every character in the book, structure your essay around how Harry and Jean model initiative, the right to personal freedoms, and the importance of economic independence. Show how these values are manifested in Harry's and Jean's words and behavior and demonstrate how this modeling impacts the other character in the book. Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.
Essay Topic 2
We have already discussed how the narrator's attitudes toward gender do and do not overlap with those of the characters. But what about the author's perspective? Write an essay that takes and defends a position on the degree to which Sam Selvon's perspective on gender overlaps with that of the narrator of The Housing Lark. You may choose to use biographical information on Selvon as part of your defense of your position, but the majority of your evidence should be drawn from the text of The Housing Lark itself. Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.
Essay Topic 3
What are the various functions of the West Indian vernacular language used in The Housing Lark? Why does it matter that this is the dialect used by the narrator? How does this dialect contribute to meaning and tone? Write an essay that takes and defends a position on these issues. Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.
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This section contains 1,191 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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