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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 the father want to do with the food that he and his son find in the nice house?

2. What does the father find inside the barn that he eats?

3. How are the father and son feeling when they leave the hidden cellar?

4. What do the father and son find inside the hidden cellar?

5. How does the father get the men that approach them on the road to leave?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain how the son begins questioning his father's judgment in Chapters 26-30.

2. In Chapter 26, describe the son's reaction when the father loses their lighter and cannot make a fire.

3. Recall how the father displays his paranoid attitude again while he and the son are staying in the hidden cellar.

4. Describe how the father treats the old man that he and the son meet in Chapter 31.

5. Analyze how the son feels about he and his father's changing relationship in Chapter 40, citing an example from the text.

6. Explain what happens in Chapter 35 that finally makes the father realize that the son is growing up.

7. Describe how the father makes lamps before he and the son enter the hidden cellar.

8. Explain why the son returns to the fearful version of himself in Chapter 36, and use an example from the text.

9. Explain why the father gives the son a gun after they see the people walking towards the house.

10. Describe what things the father and son find while at the beach in Chapter 40.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

The father insists that there are good and bad guys in the world, leading the reader to believe a "bad" group of people are responsible for the destruction. How are good people set apart from bad people in the story? What are the major characteristics that good people have that bad people don't? How does the father distinguish between the good and bad people?

(see the answer keys)

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