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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 Ruth bring to Harry when she returns from the bathroom at the end of this section?

2. According to Harry in the very end of the section, what will others do if you follow your heart?

3. What is the name of the first man with whom Ruth had sex?

4. What is different about Ruth when Harry arrives back at her apartment?

5. Who does Harry imagine the club in his hands has become?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Nelson Angstrom.

2. What has Harry decided about God by the end of the novel?

3. Why does Mrs. Angstrom feel no pity for Janice?

4. How does Harry interact with Mrs. Springer after coming home?

5. Describe Ruth's high school relationship with Harrison.

6. What is Jack Eccles supposed to be doing instead of playing golf?

7. What non-Christian statement does Mrs. Smith regret making?

8. Why does Harry fear he has killed a second child while speaking to Ruth?

9. What excuse does Janice make to her father regarding Harry?

10. Why does Jack Eccles despair after his visits to the Springers, Angstroms, and Kruppenbach?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Updike's novel is the story of a man unable to commit to any way of life for fear that a better option exists somewhere else. Write an essay about this fear, focusing on three of Rabbit's frantic flights:

Part 1) At the beginning of the novel, Rabbit abruptly abandons his family to drive south. What is he hoping to find on this journey? Why does it fail? How does Rabbit's interaction with a gas station attendant portend this failure?

Part 2) Why does Rabbit decide to leave Ruth? What does he think he leaves behind with this abandonment? What does he leave behind in reality?

Part 3) The final pages of Rabbit, Run contain a frantic flight in all directions for the protagonist. What is he trying to escape? How do neither of his two homes contain this goal? Where is Rabbit left at the end of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Harry Angstrom is often little more than a lost child in the novel. He constantly searches for a mentor, someone who can simply tell him the right way. Write an essay about three people Harry looks to for guidance. How do these people come into his life, and why does he look up to them? What advice do they give him? Does it help?

Part 1) Marty Tothero

Part 2) Jack Eccles

Part 3) Mr. Springer

Essay Topic 3

The novel is largely told from Harry Angstrom's point of view, and much of his time is spent contending with the women in his life. Write an essay on Harry's ambivalent attitude toward women in three parts:

Part 1) What does Janice Angstrom represent to her husband throughout the novel? Why are they continually at odds with each other? What does Harry actually like about his wife?

Part 2) On of the strangest and most dangerous relationships that Harry has is with Lucy Eccles What is so precarious about their interactions? What do they seem to want from each other, and what stands in the way of this?

Part 3) To what extend is Ruth Leonard a happy medium for Harry between his wife and someone like Lucy Eccles? Why is he so happy for the time he is with her? What destroys this happiness?

(see the answer keys)

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