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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Manny says, "We should have killed that fucking woman," (73) what woman is he alluding to?
(a) Ma.
(b) The woman on the highway.
(c) A homeless woman they met at the park.
(d) The highway or Ma - it is unclear.

2. What do the narrator and Paps eat after leaving the museum in Chapter 17: NIAGARA?
(a) Pancakes.
(b) Hot dogs.
(c) Hamburgers.
(d) Nothing.

3. What does Paps confess to the narrator on the way home from the Falls in Chapter 17: NIAGARA?
(a) He is cheating on Ma and leaving the family.
(b) The narrator is his favorite son.
(c) He is angry with the narrator for talking to strangers.
(d) He was watching the narrator at the museum and thought the narrator was pretty.

4. Why is Paps going to Niagara Falls in Chapter 17: NIAGARA?
(a) Looking for a job.
(b) To drive a package.
(c) To fly a package.
(d) Paps wants to see the beautiful scenery of Niagara Falls.

5. What is the reader led to believe by what is in the back of the truck in Chapter 13, DUCKS?
(a) That the brothers are running away.
(b) That Paps may want to hurt Ma.
(c) That the family is taking a vacation.
(d) That Ma may be leaving Paps.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Manny describe white magic in Chapter 16, WASN'T NO ONE TO STOP THIS?

2. What memory does the narrator bring to mind at the end of Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I AM MADE?

3. After Manny's dream, what implied comparison is made about the dream to the brothers' current situation in Chapter 15, TRASH KITES?

4. Why does the narrator say he is embarrassed by his brothers in Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I WAS MADE?

5. What does Ma do while Paps is with the narrator in the end of Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I WAS MADE?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I AM MADE (subsection: MIDNIGHT), why do Manny and Joel say that the narrator is "...fucked up..." (110)?

2. How do you know that the narrator and the bus driver have a sexual encounter? (Provide a quote.)

3. At the end of Chapter 16, WASN'T NO ONE TO STOP THIS, the narrator says, "Why won't you look at me, my brothers, why won't you take my eyes?" (97). Why does the other want his brothers to "take his eyes"?

4. What is the difference between Paps' reasoning and the brothers' assumptions about Paps digging a hole in the backyard? How does the reader know this?

5. How does the narrator deviate from the other brothers when it comes to lying in the hole Paps has dug?

6. How does Ma feel after visiting the park? What statements or behavior show her feelings?

7. Why might the brothers claim to be "Ma's Militia" (80) in Chapter 14, TRENCH?

8. How does Ma react when she returns home to find the hole in the backyard?

9. How does the narrator feel when Paps holds him over Niagara Falls? What might this narrator's intuition say about the narrator?

10. Why might the author share that the narrator remembers an erotic situation in a public pool locker room before viewing the tape the headbanger shares?

(see the answer keys)

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