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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 John characterize his feeling about his brother?

2. What does John say he and his family see when they drive up?

3. What does John say Robby feels about Garth's death?

4. Who calls John at the beginning of the book?

5. What does John say his mother lost when Robby declined into crime?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does John say Robby has a place in Jamila's life?

2. How does John characterize the significance of Robby's birthday?

3. What happened after Robby's arrest?

4. What kind of blackness was expected of John in college?

5. Describe the style and format of 'Brothers and Keepers'.

6. Why does John say it might have been a mistake to bring Robby home with him?

7. How does Robby characterize himself as a young man?

8. How does John characterize the waiting room?

9. Who travels to the prison to visit Robby?

10. What does John say Jamila knows of Robby?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the role of the women in "Brothers and Keepers", and how would the action and ideas in the book be portrayed differently if they were described from a woman's perspective? How would John's mother, or Judy, or Tanya, tell this story? How does John include their point of view?

Essay Topic 2

What does John and Robby's blackness have to do with "Brothers and Keepers"? How does it affect their situation, and where, if at all, do they escape from it, or evade its influence? How is blackness defined in the book, and how do John and Robby rework the definition so that it accommodates them?

Essay Topic 3

In what way are John and Robby American? What part of their experience is essentially American, and what other parts of their experiences are not typically American? What nationality or identity do they partake of if they are not American?

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