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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. In the crawlspace, the narrator asks Joel, "It's just going to be like this forever?" (43). What is the narrator referring to?

2. Why does Manny crawl into bed with his brother at the beginning of the story?

3. What tool do the boys use to smash the tomatoes?

4. What role does the narrator play in the "magic of God" (25)?

5. What does Manny, the narrator's eldest brother, have to get in the middle of the night from the neighbor's for a birthday?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do the narrator and Joel hide in a crawlspace when Paps returns home after being gone for many days?

2. What previous incident may have led Joel to ask a pregnant woman outside a drugstore if she was tricked into having a baby?

3. How does the reader know that Ma was a naive teenager when it came to sex as explained in Chapter 6, US PROPER?

4. What may the Quote provided before the Title Page relate to you about a theme or important motif of the novel?

5. What personality traits and behaviors are both implicitly and explicitly conveyed through the description of the brothers' behaviors in the opening Chapters? How do you come to these conclusions?

6. Even though it is not explicitly mentioned in the novel, how does the author convey that Ma has been abused by Paps in Chapter 4?

7. How do you know that the novel is being written in first-person?

8. Why does Ma not want the narrator to get older like his other brothers?

9. Having the knowledge of Ma's grueling work schedule and unstable behavior, why might the narrator say after Ma awakes confused, "It was a Sunday, but no one told Ma that" (5)?

10. What kind of support does Lina provide to the narrator's family when she comes to visit?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The three brothers all take turns lying in the hole Paps has dug. Each one has a very disparate experience of what it is like to lie down inside feeling the cold, hard dirt against their backs. How is the narrator's experience different from the other brothers? What does the narrator's state of mind say about his character in contrast to his brothers?

Essay Topic 2

At the park, Ma feeds the ducks while the brothers wonder off onto a highway. They encounter a woman who is worried that the brothers are dangling their legs off a bridge. When the family leaves the park, Manny calls "a woman" a bitch, but it is unclear whether he is referring to the woman from the highway or Ma. According to the plot line of he novel, which woman do you believe Manny is making reference to and why? What specific aspects of the Chapter lead you to that conclusion?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 16, WASN'T NO ONE TO STOP THIS, the narrator is irritated by Manny's unceasing mention of God. The narrator is annoyed that Manny acts as if he deeply understands, but the narrator questions Manny's awareness. How does Manny justify his knowledge of God? What are some examples that justify Manny's intuitions about God?

(see the answer keys)

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