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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. How often does Dave receive dinner during the summer of 1971?

2. What have the challenges of Dave's past done for him?

3. As Dave contemplates his abuse as a child, what does he reveal that he felt was causing his dire situation?

4. What lie does Dave's mother tell everyone about what Dave did to her while she was pregnant?

5. By Chapter 7, The Lord's Prayer, when does Dave believe he will be free of his mother?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the new punishment Dave's mother invents for him in Chapter 5, While Father is Away, and how he survives it.

2. As Dave enters fifth grade, what is his frame of mind?

3. How does Dave look positively at his abusive past?

4. Describe what Dave does when he finds that his stab wound is infected.

5. What are Dave's thoughts when his father leaves for good?

6. Summarize the incidents that happen to Dave on the day his mother takes his brothers to the zoo.

7. In Chapter 6, While Father is Away, what does Dave's father vow he will do for Dave someday?

8. Summarize what Dave wants from his life now that he is free in the Epilogue.

9. Describe what Dave has to do while the rest of the family eats in the summer of 1971.

10. Describe the people Dave encounters after he is rescued.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate the relationship between Dave and his mother.

- How does Dave's father affect Dave's relationship with his mother?

- How does Dave feel about his mother at the end of the book?

- Give examples from the story of how they interact with one another.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze the relationship between Dave and his brother, Russell.

- How does Russell have an impact on how Dave's mother treats him?

- What are Russell's feelings toward Dave?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how Dave's mother changes from the beginning of the book to the end.

- How do her attitudes toward her family and Dave in particular change?

- How does her attitude toward Dave's father change?

- What are the differences in her attitude toward the way she takes care of her family, cooking, cleaning, planning vacations, and nurturing change through the course of the book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 729 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample