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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 does Tom react to Becky when he goes back to school?

2. What does Tom dump onto the table?

3. What does Tom fear whenever someone gossips to him about the murder?

4. What reason does Tom give for not letting Polly know he was alive?

5. What was the schoolmaster's unfulfilled goal?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Tom think when he's whipped for ruining his schoolbook?

2. How does Tom treat Amy Lawrence when he comes back to school?

3. Where does Tom think he's found No. 2?

4. What is kept in the mysterious room at the tavern?

5. What is the town's reaction after the murder trial?

6. How does Tom feel when Injun Joe is found dead?

7. What good deed does Tom do for Becky?

8. Describe what happens in the courtroom during Tom's testimony.

9. How does Mrs. Thatcher react as Tuesday comes and Becky is still missing?

10. What does Tom say that people often find that leads them to a buried treasure?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss morality and punishment in the novel.

1) Why does Aunt Polly feel morally obligated to punish Tom? Where does the belief that she should punish Tom come from?

2) How do Tom and Huck define morality? Do they think of themselves as moral people? Why or why not?

3) How do Tom and Huck view punishment? What does punishing the boys accomplish?

Essay Topic 2

Tom Sawyer is set in a small town in middle-America in the mid-1800s. Discuss the importance of the setting of Tom Sawyer.

1) How are the qualities of Tom's childhood determined by the setting?

2) What type of independence does the setting allow Tom? What types of constraints does the setting put on Tom?

3) How might Tom's childhood be different in a different location or time?

Essay Topic 3

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is filled with stereotypes. Discuss stereotypes in the novel.

1) What are the racial stereotypes in the novel? How is Injun Joe a stereotype of the author, and how is he stereotyped by the town?

2) What are the gender stereotypes in the novel? Discuss Aunt Polly, Widow Douglas, Becky Thatcher, and Amy Lawrence as examples of female stereotypes.

3) How are Tom Sawyer and Huck Finns stereotypes of boys?

(see the answer keys)

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