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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. While walking through an inhabited town, what are the father and son desperate for?

2. What season is approaching that has the father worried?

3. How does the son feel about how his father has treated the man who has collapsed on the road?

4. Just when the father is thinking of leaving the cart he sees their destination -- what does he name it?

5. After leaving the first location visited in Chapter 1, the father and son reach a city -- why does the father presume there is no life there?

Short Essay Questions

1. Recall an example from the first few chapters of the novel that demonstrates the son's concern with mortality.

2. After traveling through the mountains, explain how the father knows he and his son have reached their destination.

3. Explain how the father demonstrates perseverance in Chapters 16 through 20.

4. Describe how the father restricts the son from his humanitarian instincts.

5. Give an example that demonstrates the father's stubbornness and how he has somewhat lost touch with reality.

6. Explain what the father says about the States road.

7. Analyze the son's dream about the toy penguin.

8. Explain what happens in Chapter 16 when a little boy comes up to the son.

9. Recall what question the son asks the father repeatedly and relate it to the father's coughing fits.

10. Describe the father's belief in God.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the symbol of innocence and how it pertains to the son in The Road. Why is the son's innocence so important to the father? Why wouldn't he rather have his son toughen up? Is the son's innocence a symbol of what has been lost in the world?

Essay Topic 2

Explore the theme of death in The Road. How are the father and son dealing with the thought of death? How does the son's view of death compare to the father's? Is the son naive about death?

Essay Topic 3

Although the landscape and destruction are mentioned, the author never explains what caused the devastation. Explore the cause of this devastation, refer to the clues that are provided to the reader.

• How does the landscape suggest an epidemic -- could it be environmental, caused by man through war, or both?

• Why is it difficult to truly assess the situation of the world, and how is the father an unreliable witness?

• How does not explaining the disaster add to the paranoia and confusion that the reader feels from the father?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 920 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample