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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 is Thomas Sutpen's rank in the army?

2. Upon hearing that Judith is engaged, what does Rosa offer to teach Judith?

3. Where does Mr. Coldfield die?

4. Where do Sutpen's slaves go when the war began?

5. What is the weather like the night of Sutpen's wedding?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reasons does Jason Compson give for Rosa hating her father?

2. Why does Jason Compson, who is telling much of the story presented in Chapter 2, know so much about Sutpen?

3. Why did Henry choose to reject his family and his birthright when his father forbade the marriage between Bon and Judith?

4. What reason did Sutpen give for not joining the Klan?

5. How did Charles Bon actually find out about his father?

6. Why is it ironic that the only Sutpen descendant left at the end of the novel is Jim Bond?

7. Why did Clytie set the fire at Sutpen's Hundred?

8. What is the reader to imfer from the last paragraph of Chapter 1, which says that there were "two Sutpen faces," one Judith's and one a slave girl's, looking down at Sutpen fighting his slaves?

9. Characterize Thomas Sutpen as he is portrayed by Rosa Coldfield's description in Chapter 1.

10. When General Compson rescues Charles Etienne Saint-Valery Bon from an indictment, he gives Bon money and tells him to leave town. He tells him that "once you are among strangers, people who don't know you, you can be whatever you will." What does he mean when he says that Bon "can be whatever" he wants?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the end of the novel, Sutpen's house burns to the ground, eliminating the last vestiges of his former wealth. Compare the physical decline of the Sutpen estate to the decline of the Sutpen family.

Essay Topic 2

Pick one female character in the novel and describe her role in the text, how she is characterized, and what that role and characterization reveal about the novel's attitude toward women.

Essay Topic 3

How can the fall of the Sutpen family be compared to the fall of the South? What is the relationship between the two declines?

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