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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 does Spenser do for dinner the first night that Patty is away in New York?
2. What does Spenser wonder about the female jogger in the beige and blue exercise outfit?
3. In Chapter 3, what does the man keep calling the narrator?
4. Who hires the narrator in Chapter 1?
5. In Chapter 3, who else is in the house besides the narrator and the two people in the living room?
Short Essay Questions
1. What type of person does Paul Giacomin appear to be?
2. If you were Spenser, what would you have done differently in Chapter 2?
3. What does the discussion that Patty and Spenser have in Chapter 8 reveal to the audience about Patty's real character?
4. When Paul arrives home, what is the reaction that mother and son both give and receive?
5. Why does Spenser not like the growing sense of intimacy that he describes in Chapter 10?
6. In April, after Mel's thugs try to kidnap Paul, Patty Giacomin calls Spenser for help once again. This time, she asks Spenser to protect her and Paul. Why does Patty desperately call Spenser when she experiences trouble with her ex-husband in relation to her son?
7. In Chapter 11, Spenser and Paul have a discussion about why Spenser did not shoot the intruders. What does Spenser tell Paul about his reluctance to shoot Buddy and Harold?
8. In Chapter 6 we are introduced to Spenser's girlfriend, Susan Silverman. What type of a person does she seem to be, and how does that contrast or compliment Spenser's personality?
9. What type of person does the narrator seem to be?
10. By the beginning of Chapter 6, some time has passed since Spenser's case with the Giacomins; but, he really cannot stop thinking about the whole situation. It bothers him at a basketball game during a date with his girlfriend, Susan. What does this extended concern that Spenser shows for Paul and the discontent that Spenser feel for Patty and Mel show about Spenser's character?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Mel Giacomin is the main antagonist (villain, bad guy) of the story. He is not a very complex character, and has very few personality aspects. Unlike Spenser, when he is faced with some tough decisions, he does not make good ones. and definitely makes some decisions which could be viewed as morally problematic. In a story rife with "bad guys" and "seedy characters", what makes Mel the antagonist of this story? Use instances from the text to support your answer.
Essay Topic 2
Mel and Patty have a complex relationship. They used to be in love, hence their marriage and Paul's birth. Somewhere along the way, that marriage disintegrated, leading to their separation and eventual divorce. Now their only purpose is to hurt each other in any way that they can, specifically to use Paul as the object to do that with.
Part 1) Explore the motivation that the two have to hurt each other the way that they do; why do you think that they do it?
Part 2) What effect has that relationship between his parents had on Paul?
Use specific examples from the text to support your answers.
Essay Topic 3
If you were the author of "Early Autumn", what is one aspect of the story that you would change? Why would you change it? How would it affect the overall story?
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This section contains 1,558 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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