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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. A convoy of how many buses carrying elderly blacks converge at the courthouse where Reverend Agee is holding a rally?

2. What is Clanton doing to prepare for the national spotlight a week before the Carl Lee trial?

3. Jake's friend Harry Rex Vonner tells him the grand jury voted how on the Hailey indictment?

4. When a Memphis TV crew requests to be allowed to film the trial, what does Judge Willard Bullard do?

5. What is Tonya carrying when she is kidnapped?

Short Essay Questions

1. What transpires between Carl Lee and Deputy Looney while the latter is still hospitalized, and how does Jake respond?

2. In what ways does John Grisham show that Jake relishes being back on center stage once he is Carl Lee's attorney?

3. How does K.T. "Cat" Bruster's view of truth and justice compare with Carl Lee's?

4. What sort of relationship exists between Sheriff Ozzie Walls and Jake Brigance?

5. What does the reader learn in the dialogue between Carl Lee Hailey and Jake Brigance in Chapter 4?

6. What is a significant plot development in Chapter 5?

7. What sort of a lawyer is Jake Brigance?

8. How does John Grisham depict the events taking place in Clanton as carnival-like?

9. What are some of the efforts made in Clanton in preparation for the trial?

10. What does the reader learn about the Ford County District Attorney in Chapter 7?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The story is staged around a murder trial where a number of the key characters are attorneys. The author, John Grisham, is himself an attorney. How does he use his legal expertise in writing "A Time to Kill"? How is it reflected in the depiction of legal maneuvering, selection of the jury, legal and illegal tactics, use of associates for research in preparing for court, courtroom styles, actions in the judge's chambers, and other judicial aspects?

Essay Topic 2

John Grisham presents a dark story. A 10-year-old girl is beaten, urinated on, and raped by two drunk, Mississippi rednecks. She endures unreal, subsequent trauma afterward. Her father kills the perpetrators. He is placed on trial for their murders and may be killed. A "snitch" in the KKK warns local law enforcement of potential attacks, and is himself killed in retribution. A KKK leader is killed with a Molotov cocktail. Others die in Grisham's novel, "A Time to Kill." Explain what the author is referring to by his title.

Essay Topic 3

John Grisham utilizes the theme of the forces of good marred by flaws. For example, in Chapter 29, he depicts the earnest goodwill of the black residents in the county in their candlelight vigil before the courthouse. They are committed to justice. However, their good intent is marred by the self-serving actions of their preachers who siphon their money and drive luxury cars. Identify other ways this theme prevails throughout "A Time to Kill."

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