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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Paps tell the narrator when he pulls him out of the hole in Chapter 14, TRENCH?
(a) "You come on out of that trench" (81).
(b) "What'd you take your clothes off or something?" (80).
(c) "The war is over" (81).
(d) "Could be. Could be magic. We'll see" (80).

2. What does Paps confess to the narrator on the way home from the Falls in Chapter 17: NIAGARA?
(a) He is cheating on Ma and leaving the family.
(b) He was watching the narrator at the museum and thought the narrator was pretty.
(c) The narrator is his favorite son.
(d) He is angry with the narrator for talking to strangers.

3. Why does Paps take the narrator to Niagara Falls and not Joel and Manny?
(a) Because Joel and Manny are flunking out of school and cannot miss more days.
(b) Because Joel and Manny get sick with chicken pox.
(c) Because Joel and Manny are grounded for getting into a fight.
(d) Because Joel and Manny have already seen Niagara Falls.

4. What do the brothers do with the blue rubber pall to play the sidewalk chalk circle game?
(a) Pass the ball from one brothers to the next.
(b) Kick the ball to one another.
(c) Throw the ball high up in the air and try to catch it.
(d) Smack the ball with their palms.

5. What are the narrator's brothers doing while Paps spends time with the narrator in the bathtub at the end of the novel?
(a) They have gone to the neighbors.
(b) Sweeping the snow off the truck.
(c) Huddled in the living room watching TV.
(d) They are crying outside on the porch.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to page 122, what part of the body is washed to "pay him [the narrator] the ultimate respect" (122)?

2. In Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I WAS MADE, subsection: "MIDNIGHT," what does the narrator share with the reader about Paps and Ma?

3. Who do the brothers imitate while playing their chalk circle game in Chapter 16, WASN'T NO ONE TO STOP THIS?

4. What is the reader led to believe by what is in the back of the truck in Chapter 13, DUCKS?

5. What simile is used on Page 75 to describe the brothers leaning out the window watching Paps?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why might the author share that the narrator remembers an erotic situation in a public pool locker room before viewing the tape the headbanger shares?

2. How does Paps comment about the narrator's dancing: "Goddamn, I got me a pretty one" (102) contribute to your understanding of Paps understanding of his son?

3. What is the narrator's mood after being "made" by the bus driver?

4. After Paps leaves the narrator alone at museum, an older man ambiguously asks the narrator, "I guess you're a bit young for that. What about your folks?" (100). What are some implications that can be made about the old man's statement?

5. At the end of Chapter 16, WASN'T NO ONE TO STOP THIS, the narrator says, "Why won't you look at me, my brothers, why won't you take my eyes?" (97). Why does the other want his brothers to "take his eyes"?

6. What does the author's choice to intertwine the narrator's episode in the locker room while watching the pornographic video contribute to uncover the narrator's notion of sexuality?

7. How does the headbanger's interpretation of the chalk circle being separated in a way that looks similar to a peace sign contribute to the story?

8. How does the narrator relate a stray cat's neglect of drinking milk they have given to her to Ma?

9. In Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I AM MADE (subsection: MIDNIGHT), why do Manny and Joel say that the narrator is "...fucked up..." (110)?

10. How do you know that the narrator and the bus driver have a sexual encounter? (Provide a quote.)

(see the answer keys)

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