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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. After giving money to the woman in Havre, what does the narrator watch her children do as he waits?

2. What does the narrator decide to do while attending his grandmother's funeral?

3. After the old woman became a widow, what does the text say Yellow Calf did for her?

4. As a child visiting Yellow Calf, what did the narrator and his escort take with them?

5. How many people does the narrator say are at his grandmother's funeral?

Short Essay Questions

1. What complicates the narrator's attempt to save the cow at the end of the book?

2. When the narrator sees the white man arrested, how is he treated by the other bar patrons?

3. When the narrator goes out to visit Yellow Calf the second time, how is his visit significant to the story?

4. While Mose and the narrator are herding cattle, what contributes to Mose's death?

5. When the narrator returns home from Havre, what does he think about while he is alone?

6. When Lame Bull gives the eulogy for the old woman, what is it like?

7. At the very end of the book, what does the narrator determine to do and how is this different from the beginning of the book?

8. While the narrator is riding home from Havre, what does he notice about the little girl in the car and how is that significant?

9. After the old woman's death, the narrator walks out on the plains alone to think. What significant event occurs while he is out there?

10. When the narrator walks out on the plains after his grandmother's death, what does he tell Old Bird?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the course of the novel the narrator interacts with a number of different people. What do his experiences with other people say about his character?

Essay Topic 2

Why, in the entire novel, is the name of the narrator never revealed? How does this contribute to the overall theme of the book? What is a possible name for the narrator?

Essay Topic 3

What is significant about the establishments the narrator chooses to enter when he is in town? How do his choices later contribute to his wish for his shadow to disappear and for him to disappear with it?

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