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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 Dick and Elsie do in the mud?

2. Where does Dick spend most of his afternoons now?

3. What are Dick's plans to get more money to continue finishing his boat?

4. Which of the following does NOT describe Miss Perry's mood in Chapter 29?

5. What does Parker call Dick?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is revealed about Dick's leadership skills on the documentary trip?

2. How does Dick feel about the fantasies that Elsie finds erotic?

3. How does Dick misread the message that Elsie sends when she tells him to leave her with the secret of their affair?

4. How does Dick think May will respond if she ever finds out about his affair with Elsie?

5. How can Elsie be noted as the heroine of Chapter 10 and who would be the antithesis of that?

6. Explain Dick's thoughts as he begins to understand the complications of the drug smuggling situation with Parker.

7. How does the author show that May is probably aware of Dick's affair with Elsie?

8. Who is Miss Perry and what is her relationship to Dick and his family?

9. What are the differences between how May and Elsie view Dick's boat project?

10. How does Dick's attraction to Elsie begin?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the overall setting for the novel. Why does Casey use the setting he does? What is the time period of the story? How important is the time period to the attitudes and issues of the characters?

Essay Topic 2

Casey uses more than one instance of irony in the book. Cite at least two examples you can identify in the novel and note why they are examples of irony.

Essay Topic 3

Create a brief character study of Parker. What does he look like? What are his positive personality traits? What are some of his negative characteristics? What are his hopes and fears? What motivates him--if anything--at this point in his life?

(see the answer keys)

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