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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. What are some of Mr. Carver's earliest remembered adventures?

2. What did Holly imagine she would do when she leaves Cleveland and moves to New York fifteen years before?

3. What is Alex's plan for Phillip as the two men drive to the airport?

4. What do Alex, Phillip and his father see as they pull into the driveway of the house?

5. What kind of car does Mr. Carver drive?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 9, Phillip gives us a glimpse of Holly's life. How do we learn about Holly and how she fits into her family?

2. In Chapter 11, Phillip allows Alex's car to remain in the driveway which blocks his father's car from exiting. What debate might be waging in his mind while he delays his father's departure?

3. In Chapter 9, Phillip visits Holly in her apartment in the hopes of a reconciliation. What do the two of them talk about for the first time openly and honestly? What has happened in Holly's life during their separation?

4. While flying to Memphis in Chapter 7, Philip thinks about his course of action with his sister who he fears are planning vengeance on their father. What does Phillip want to convince the sisters to do?

5. In Chapter 12, Phillip begins calling his father on a weekly basis. Why are those calls important to Phillip?

6. In Chapter 10, Phillip comes to a realization about his father and the move to Memphis. What does he decide regarding his father's move with the family to a new city to begin again?

7. At the end of Chapter 12, what does the reader know about all of the main characters?

8. While at Sunday supper with his family at Owl Mountain in Chapter 11, Phillip sees both Clara Price and Lewis Shackleford in the dining room. How does Phillip react to both of these important people?

9. In Chapter 7, Phillip compares the life he knows in his father's house in Memphis and his apartment in New York. How do the two residences differ? How does Phillip feel about the contents of his family home in Memphis and the contents of his apartment?

10. In Chapter 9, both Phillip and Holly begin to understand their fathers and see them as people. Holly encourages them both to go beyond forgiveness and forgetting and aspire to true understanding. How does Phillip remember his father's life growing up?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the beginning of the novel, Holly believes Phillip is obsessed with his family. As the novel continues, she changes her opinion. Phillip learns more about Holly's family, and it becomes evident that there is a strong similarity between Holly and Phillip. What is this mutual experience, and how does it better explain their relationship?

Essay Topic 2

Phillip realizes his father did not consider how the move to Memphis would affect all members of the family. Was the move to Memphis the only thing to affect the Carvers? Was there another factor at play, one much more dramatic than the move, that actually changed the course of everyone's lives?

Essay Topic 3

It is unusual for a young man to be close friends with a classmate and that young man's father. Yet, Alex Mercer balances these two relationships for much of his life. On what core values and experiences are their friendships built? In what ways do they differ?

(see the answer keys)

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