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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. How many days do the father and son stay in the nice house?

2. In Chapter 36, the father and son come to a nice house -- why does the father worry about going inside?

3. What does the father find in the nice house that he thinks could be poison?

4. What do the father and son do in the hidden cellar besides eating?

5. Where do the father and son travel to after leaving the gas station?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. In Chapter 30, describe how the son acts like a child for the first time.

4. Give an example from Chapters 26-30 of where the author uses foreshadowing.

5. Describe what the father and son find in Chapter 21 after the father breaks open a locked pantry door.

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

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

8. Describe how the author generates credibility to the father's paranoia about the world.

9. Describe three things that the father finds in Chapters 21-25 that he finds useful.

10. Describe three things that the father and son find of use in Chapters 36-40.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the father's psychological state and how it pertains to the story. How does his mental state affect the decisions that he makes? Are these decisions helping or hurting himself and his son?

Essay Topic 2

Examine the concept of trust and mistrust in the The Road, also explaining how it affects the son. The father's mistrust of others does keep them safe; however, does it also hold them back? Has the father's mistrust of others made the son naïve about their current situation? How has the father's mistrust of others made the son unhappy?

Essay Topic 3

From the very beginning of The Road, the author does not give the father and son names, he gives them the generic labels of "the man or father" and "the boy or son."

Part 1) Why did the author choose not to give his characters names?

Part 2) How do the characters' basic names of "the man" and "the boy" affect the way the reader relates to them?

Part 3) How would the reader view the text if the characters had been given names?

(see the answer keys)

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