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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. Who is Miller's intended audience?

2. What is another place where Miller and his mother attempt to find father figures for him?

3. According to Miller, what lesson is a father responsible for instilling in a young child?

4. Why does Miller not trust the motivations of male authority?

5. As a child, what type of clubs does Miller think men participated in?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to the information in the prologue, who is the intended audience for this book?

2. The author's writing style should appeal to whom?

3. In Chapter 1, Miller describes meeting Mr. Gentiles as one of the key turning points in his life. Why does Miller believe this?

4. In Chapter 5, what does Miller describe as crucial tasks of families?

5. How does Miller get to Boring, Oregon?

6. What kind of experience did writing this book provide the author?

7. In Chapter 4, Miller begins to understand the importance of a relationship with God as a "father figure." What does he learn?

8. Miller describes how on their first musth, young, orphaned elephants go into the wild and find a male mentor who shows them how to be a male elephant. If the young elephant cannot do this, what happens to the young elephant?

9. In Chapter 5, Miller begins to identify the positive and negative characteristics of God's love. What are these characteristics?

10. In Chapter 6, Miller's tone changes. He also more exclusively addresses his intended audience. How does his tone change and what positive and negative effect can these changes have on the reader?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

You have finished the book. Evaluate the author's ability to present his message, effectively or not, to the reader. What techniques does the author use to present his message and himself? What are the strengths of this method of memoir writing? What are the limitations of this approach to memoir writing? Does the author have biases in the book? What worked for you as you read this book? What did not? Use examples from the book to support your opinion.

Essay Topic 2

Education is another area in a boys life that is impacted by the absence of a father. Miller talks about his educational turning points. Identify the two turning points he describes in Chapter 13. Discuss why they were significant experiences for him.

Essay Topic 3

Miller writes about his faith journey as one of the focus for this book. He describes multiple aspects of this search in finding a relationship with God; thus, faith becomes a major theme in this book. What does Miller equate his faith journey with in this book? Why or how does he do this? Do you agree with his approach to use faith as a analogy? If not, what would you do differently with this focus?

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