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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 does Ma respond to Paps worries at the end of Chapter 11, NIGHT WATCH?

2. What state do Ma and Paps travel to to get married?

3. How does the reader know how Old Man feels about the brothers?

4. On the way home from the lake, the narrator reveals his brothers' ages. How old are they?

5. What does Manny say about Paps disappearance in Chapter 8, OTHER LOCUSTS?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the reader know that Ma was a naive teenager when it came to sex as explained in Chapter 6, US PROPER?

2. What may the Quote provided before the Title Page relate to you about a theme or important motif of the novel?

3. Why do the narrator and Joel hide in a crawlspace when Paps returns home after being gone for many days?

4. What personality traits and behaviors are both implicitly and explicitly conveyed through the description of the brothers' behaviors in the opening Chapters? How do you come to these conclusions?

5. What are some examples at the start of Chapter 12, BIG-DICK TRUCK that demonstrate the financial situation of the narrator's family?

6. Why does Ma not want the narrator to get older like his other brothers?

7. After Ma asks the brothers if they think it is funny when men beat women, the narrator retreats to a window and looks into he sun and says, "I could not blind myself" (16). How does this statement contribute to the nature of the narrator's desires?

8. What metaphorical significance can be determined by the fact that Ma and the narrator cannot swim and hang on to Paps in order to stay afloat?

9. How does the narrator differentiate the brothers' behavior in relation to when Ma is awake or asleep?

10. What kind of support does Lina provide to the narrator's family when she comes to visit?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Paps digs a "hole" in the backyard while the brothers watch from an upstairs window. The brothers debate whether it is a hole, trench, or grave. Why do the brothers see the hole as being more somber than what Paps' true intentions may be? What does Paps say that explains his own reasoning for the hole?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 6, US PROPER, the brothers are told about their births from Ma. Ma explains how young she was and how Paps "tricked her." At the end of the Chapter, the boys encounter a pregnant woman and ask her unorthodox questions about her own pregnancy. The woman responds that the brothers need to behave properly. Why do you think this Chapter is titled, "US PROPER?" What is the relevance of the word "US" in the Chapter title, when it may have just been called, "BEING PROPER"?

Essay Topic 3

At the start of the novel, Ma asks the brothers to squirt tomato juice on her. Before being splattered, she compares the brothers appearance, covered in red tomato sliminess, with what the brothers looked like when they were born. Ma requests that the brothers, "Do it to me [Ma]?...Make me born" (6). What does this quote symbolize about Ma and her possible wants, needs, fears, state of mind, or stability? Provide specific examples to support your answer, as well as appropriate quotes.

(see the answer keys)

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