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

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

3. After sleeping with Marlene, what about her makes it hard for the narrator to look at her?

4. After the white traveler is taken away from Havre, who does the narrator wish he could find?

5. While digging his grandmother's grave, what memory does the narrator recall?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. When the narrator goes out to visit Yellow Calf the second time, what does he learn about his grandmother?

6. Why does the narrator treat Marlene badly?

7. Why does First Raise take the narrator to visit Yellow Calf and why is that significant?

8. After the narrator sleeps with Marlene, what is different about him?

9. When Ferdinand Horn offers his condolences, is he truly sorry?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why does the narrator fall in with the traveling white man? What is it about the man that attracts the narrator? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Numerous times throughout the story, the narrator has to remind different characters of his age. How does this necessity contribute to the main character's difficulties? Why does he sometimes have to remind himself that he is thirty-two-years-old?

Essay Topic 3

Though First Raise is already dead when the story begins, what role does he play? How do his actions and example affect the narrator, both in life and in death?

(see the answer keys)

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