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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. What do the women in the refugee camp call their homemade liquor?

2. What is a Sea-Tok?

3. What does Sarat do when Leonard's son pushes her?

4. What does Dana call Sarat before Dana gets on the bus that takes the survivors away from the camp?

5. What color is associated with the Free Southerners?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the first food that Albert Gaines gives to Sarat and why is that significant?

2. What does Martina do to earn money at the refugee camp?

3. Explain why Martina wants Simon to join the Free Southerners and not the rebels.

4. Explain why Sarat earns the nickname of Payday.

5. How does Sarat feel about Marcus and his father escaping to the North?

6. Why is the Virginia Cavalier's killing of the colonel and theft of Northern supplies important?

7. How did Sarat's name come to be?

8. Explain the narrator's vocation and how it affects his telling of the story.

9. On the way to the refugee camp, why does a woman confront Martina and consequently get kicked off the bus?

10. What did Albert Gaines' father mean when he told his son to go into "blood work"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the four main causes of America's Second Civil War.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the use of the factual documents included at the end of each chapter. Theorize why the author chose to use the integrated style of both narrative story and documentary evidence. Give at least three reasons for your theory.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the character of Marcus Exum and his relationship to Sarat. Give at least four examples of how these two characters' lives are intertwined throughout the novel.

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