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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 does Tom throw at Sid as he leaves?

2. What does Tom do to stop himself from talking in his sleep?

3. Why does the teacher seat Tom with the girls?

4. What does Tom do when he plays hooky?

5. What does the new girl throw to Tom?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Tom and Becky talk about before their discussion turns to romance?

2. What do the villagers want to do to Injun Joe?

3. How does Tom trick Aunt Polly so that he can escape?

4. Why does Tom realize that Muff Potter cannot tell the true story?

5. What do Tom and Huck do with their pact after they sign it?

6. Describe some of the ways Tom and Huck discuss to remove warts.

7. What has Mary earned in Sunday School, and what did she have to do to earn it?

8. What grievance does Injun Joe have against the doctor?

9. What about Tom's behavior at school strikes Sid as strange?

10. Describe what Tom draws on his slate for Becky.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Huck Finn feels constrained by the Widow Douglas, just as Tom feels constrained by his Sunday shoes. Discuss freedom in the novel, and how freedom conflicts with civilization.

1) What does Huck Finn find constricting about civilization?

2) The boys admire and emulate outlaws. Why do they admire fictional outlaws? How do they feel about the real outlaws in the novel?

3) Tom Sawyer admires Huck for his free lifestyle, and yet at the end of the novel, he convinces Huck to stay with the Widow Douglas. Why does he do this?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss love and jealousy in the novel by examining the relationship between Becky and Tom.

1) Is Tom really in love with Becky? Is his love for Becky different from his "love" for Amy Lawrence, whom he so easily dismisses? How is his love of Becky different from his love for Aunt Polly?

2) Describe Becky's feelings for Tom. What attracts Becky to Tom? How deep are her emotions for him? How does the experience in the caves change their relationship?

3) How do the characters experience and use jealousy in their relationship?

Essay Topic 3

Tom Sawyer is a dramatic person. He creates melodrama out of the events of his life.

1) Why does Tom Sawyer take on a melodramatic attitude of pining for Becky and then depression when Becky rejects him? Who is this attitude aimed at?

2) How and why does Tom dramatize the things that he does, such as running away to become a pirate? Why does Tom choose to let his family suffer, thinking he's dead, so that he can make his reemergence more dramatic?

3) What is the origin of Tom's desire for drama?

(see the answer keys)

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