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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. From whose point-of-view is Inner Shitty?

2. Who in Renton's family does Spud see at the pub in Na Na and Other Nazis?

3. What information does Billy reveal about Jackie at the end of Grieving and Mourning in Port Sunshine?

4. Why is Tommy's concert purchase a poor decision in Scotland Takes Drugs in Psychic Defense?

5. Where does Fiona go at the end of Grieving and Mourning in Port Sunshine?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to the communal pot in Grieving and Mourning in Port Sunshine?

2. How does Sick Boy dictate activities in The Skag Boys?

3. How does Renton meet Dianne?

4. Describe the activities of the gang in Grieving and Mourning in Port Sunshine.

5. What is the cause of the brawl in Her Man?

6. How does Spud get in a brawl in Na Na and Other Nazis?

7. Why do the mates decide to go to the Meadows?

8. How does Begbie respond to the groups when they don't want to rob a tourist?

9. Why is Stevie sad on New Years?

10. How does Renton almost lose his opium suppositories in The First Day of the Edinburgh Festival?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The lingering fear of the heroin culture of Trainspotting is HIV/AIDS. Write an essay discussing the way AIDS affects the lives of three characters in the novel. How does each character contract the syndrome? Does he maintain his health? Is he alive at the end of the novel? Discuss the methods this character uses to cope with AIDS.

Part 1) Davie

Part 2) Tommy

Part 3) Matty

Essay Topic 2

Trainspotting's prose often resembles a series of amusing or pathetic anecdotes related over a pint at a pub. Write an essay discussing how Welsh subverts the frame of the pub story. How does he intermingle the prurient with the profound? In the structure of the novel, how do individual anecdotes add up to something more in concert together? What is the end result of these tales?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the character of Tommy. To what extent is he the most sadly innocent of the central figures in Trainspotting? What are his drugs of choice at the beginning of the novel? What does he want from life, and how does this lead him to heroin? Discuss the extent to which Tommy' story is the most cautionary of those regarding the consequences of drug use.

(see the answer keys)

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