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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 strange thing does the lieutenant do before he sends the priest out of the jail?

2. How far away is the Yankee when the priest sends the guide and mules back?

3. What unusual thing does the priest do in prison?

4. Where does the priest wake up after meeting the man with the gun?

5. What have Mr. and Mrs. Fellows agreed not to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. Compare the benevolence of the Church with the plans the lieutenant has for the people.

2. How does the mestizo give himself away to the priest?

3. What unusual thing does the priest do when they are within sight of the Indian village?

4. How does the priest make money for his trip to the border?

5. Describe how the priest decides to stay and return to the Indian village.

6. Describe the kindness of the lieutenant after telling the priest that he was found guilty at the trial and will be shot tomorrow.

7. What is the implication of the visitor to the boy's house in the middle of the night?

8. How does the priest awaken the next morning?

9. Notwithstanding the civility that had transpired between the lieutenant and the priest, how does the lieutenant behave at the execution?

10. Describe how the meeting between the lieutenant and the priest shows a different side of both men.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper on how early childhood influences one for the rest of one's life. Begin with the priest's recollection that his had been a happy childhood except that he had been afraid of too many things and hated poverty above all. The fear of poverty had motivated him to his vocation, but unlike Father José, he learned a higher motivation. Relate his experience with your own or that of someone you know.

Essay Topic 2

Father José represents religious people who are religious for the wrong reasons and without loyalty. His weakness is selfishness and fear. Write an essay about how real commitment is determined by what a person is willing to give up to remain loyal to that commitment.

Essay Topic 3

Greene does not give names to the main characters in the novel, but he does name minor characters. How does that literary technique prevent the novel from being a simple tale of survival and give it a much larger message? To write this paper, you will need to cite instances where people are named and why that makes the story more real. You will also need to explain how not giving names to the central characters helps to make them symbolic of a much larger conflict.

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