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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. According to the television, how many people die a year from snakebite?

2. Who/what calls the event a "feathery plume"?

3. What is Babette's father's name?

4. Whom does Jack follow around campus?

5. Why did Babette want to take Dylar?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened to Orest's quest to break the world record? What happens when he tries to do it?

2. What is the condition Babette has, for which she is taking Dylar.

3. What causes the family to evacuate, eventually? What is the thing that convinces them?

4. Why is Heinrich crouched outside on the roof at the beginning of Book 2?

5. When Jack asks Babette for Mr. Gray's real name, why does she refuse to tell him?

6. Why does Jack follow Winnie Richards in Chapter 25? Are his reasons valid?

7. How did Babette convince Mr. Gray to let her try the Dylar?

8. What is the (potentially wrong) answer Denise gives Babette when Babette wonders why UFOs always come from upstate?

9. According to Jack, what is the effect weather reports have on the elderly?

10. What is Orest Mercator trying to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast Winnie Richard's attitudes about death, mortality and dying with those of Orest Mercator. How are these two alike, and how are they different? What does Jack learn from each of them?

Essay Topic 2

Wilder, Jack and Babette's youngest child, is non-verbal in a family of fast-talking, bright and pretty evasive/elliptical conversationalists. Write an analytical essay that explains Wilder's function in the narrative. Be sure to offer an explanation of how Wilder affects the plot, characterization, mood, etc.

Essay Topic 3

To these characters, experiences are validated by external recognition, especially media recognition. While this fixation on television and radio is tied to pop-culture consumerism, it is also a thematic fixation of this novel. Discuss why DeLillo called this book "White Noise". Be sure to include your interpretation of this phrase literally and symbolically, as well as any examples of its use in the text itself. How does it relate to the themes of the text? Is it a good title?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 744 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample