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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. Why did brother's wife hate Goolrick?

2. What does Goolrick do the morning of the funeral?

3. What does Goolrick begin to carry with him?

4. What does Goolrick admit his mother never showed him?

5. What happens when Goolrick's left arm is too damaged to cut?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Goolrick's relationship with his male lover.

2. Describe the situation when Goolrick tried to help his mother with a wound on her elbow.

3. Describe mother's appearance.

4. Explain what Goolrick means when he talks about the mystery of how most people carry on.

5. Explain how the patients beat the addicts in volleyball.

6. Explain how Mother died and Goolrick's actions at the time of her death.

7. Explain who Sam Weller is, and what happens to him.

8. Describe the dinner at Judy Judy's, including her collection, and the food, as well as the people attending.

9. Describe Goolrick's relationship with his female lover.

10. Describe Goolrick's state of mind at this point in the novel.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

It is clear that Goolrick has developed, over the years, a deviant sense of sexuality. How is this displayed in the novel? What sexual experiences does Goolrick discuss from his early youth and his teenage years that show this deviance? How do these events tie into Goolrick's fear in his teens that he was sexually poisonous, and that his touch would kill others? Why did his masturbation become such an important event to him, and how did that event become frightening and painful? How do you think this effected his overall sexuality later in life?

Essay Topic 2

Foreshadowing is used heavily in the novel, as Goolrick flips between historical memory and current fact to weave together his painful memoir. Choose three examples of foreshadowing, and discuss them in depth in terms of how they were used to indicate what was to come later in the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Choose one of the major themes in the novel, and discuss it. Some examples of themes are child abuse, alcoholism, depression, and the lifestyle of the 1950s and 1960s. Include how Goolrick approached the theme, its purpose in the novel, how it was conveyed to the reader, and how the people in the book reacted to the scenarios this theme presented.

(see the answer keys)

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