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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 technique is used in the sentence, "Which was what made them inseparable, the hours of work, the lyric, the dreams" (26)?

2. With whom does Brenda go on a trip to Hawaii?

3. When Nan asks for Frank's help renegotiating her divorce settlement, what advice does he give her?

4. What is a logical inference about who "Hopie" is?

5. Where is Alan's family from?

Short Essay Questions

1. What angers Frank so much at the bar and restaurant called "Jack's'?

2. Explain the meaning of this metaphor used on page 23: "They were in the last rank of the armies of law."

3. What is similar and what is different about Frank's and Alan's fathers?

4. What is the outcome of Frank and Alan's big case, and how does it impact their careers?

5. What do Frank and Alan do two months before their big case is supposed to be tried, and why do people tell them it is a bad idea?

6. What major event happens in Alan's life at Christmastime the year that Frank meets Nan, and how does Alan feel about it?

7. Who is Nan Christie, and what is her relationship to Frank?

8. On page 29, what does Brenda say about "thin-lipped women," and how does Frank respond?

9. Who is Brenda, and what is Franks' relationship with her in the first section of the text?

10. In what way is Alan's reaction to Nan different from Frank's?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In an early discussion of Alan's father's legal career, the narrator notes that “No defendant was too guilty, no case too clear-cut” (25). This leads to public disdain for Alan's father, but shortly afterward the reader sees the man himself in action, defending a black man in front of a bigoted jury. Reread this section of the text and then write an essay that considers how Alan's father functions as a metaphor for Salter himself and for his style of writing without sentimentality of the circumstances surrounding the immoral action of having sex with a minor. Support your assertions with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the significance of alcohol in "American Express." Support your assertions with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about the role of women in "American Express." Be sure to support your assertions with evidence from the text.

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