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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 was the schoolmaster's unfulfilled goal?

2. What disconcerts Becky when Tom shouts to the other picnickers?

3. Who is the first friend who agrees to go hunting for treasure with Tom?

4. What is found by Injun Joe's body?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe what happens the first time Becky goes to sleep in the cave.

2. What evidence of Becky and Tom do the searchers find in the cave?

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

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

5. Describe the Spaniard.

6. What is Tom's prior experience with the boy he saw Becky with?

7. Why does Injun Joe want to harm the Widow Douglas?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Tom Sawyer is a mischievous trickster. Discuss the role of mischief and trickery in the novel.

1) Aunt Polly scolds and punishes Tom for his mischief, but she forgives him easily, too. When Tom thinks he'll die, he believes he'll go to hell for his misbehavior, but at his funeral, the pastor has nothing but good to say of the boys. How bad or wrong is Tom's mischief?

2) Why does Tom misbehave? What does Tom gain from his antics, and is the gain worth the price?

3) Besides Tom, how do other characters get into mischief? Compare and contrast other characters' mischievous behavior with Tom's.

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Tom Sawyer lives in a world of fantasy. Not only does he play Robin Hood, but he imagines that adventure stories about pirates and robbers are true, as well as stories of witches, ghosts, and magic. Discuss fantasy and reality in the novel.

1) In what ways does Tom's experience of fiction change the way he views the world?

2) How do Tom's fantasy games become reality?

3) How does Tom twist reality to make it more fantastical?

(see the answer keys)

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