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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. When the family sees Doodle struggling to bury the ibis, what is their response?

2. How does the family react when the boys reveal that Doodle can walk?

3. How old is Doodle when he begins to try to move himself?

4. What is Brother's real name?

5. What do the "strange names" (8) talked about at the family dinner party allude to?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Mama tells "Brother" that Doodle might be mentally disabled, what does "Brother" plan to do, and what changes his mind?

2. How does Daddy react to the hurricane, and what emotions do his reactions cause in his sons?

3. What does the narrator make Doodle do in the barn loft, and how does Doodle react?

4. How does "Brother" go about teaching Doodle to walk?

5. When Doodle and "Brother" take up telling one another stories to pass the time, what story does Doodle tell?

6. How old is Doodle when he learns to walk, and why is his age relevant to him learning to walk?

7. When Doodle learns to walk, where does the family put his cart, and why is this symbolically appropriate?

8. When the family get excited and try to hug "Brother" for teaching Doodle to walk, how does "Brother" react, and why?

9. What changes in Doodle's living situation when he learns to crawl?

10. How does Doodle die?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a thesis-driven essay in which you analyze the setting of Old Woman Swamp. Consider questions like these: What events take place there? How do the boys feel while they are there? Why does it matter that it is a natural setting and that it is described as the only spot of beauty around them? Be sure to use textual evidence as support for your claims.

Essay Topic 2

Hurst offers a great deal of foreshadowing in the opening of "The Scarlet Ibis." Write an essay in which you analyze the first five paragraphs' use of foreshadowing--identify elements of foreshadowing and explain what they predict, and how.

Essay Topic 3

The narrator feels responsible for his brother's death. Do you agree? Write an essay using evidence form the story to argue that "Brother" is or is not responsible for Doodle's death.

(see the answer keys)

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