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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. From what period is the Lakeside book of minutes that Shadow purchases in Chapter 11?

2. Who arrives in Shadow's nothingness to convince him to return to life at the beginning of Chapter 18?

3. What does Mr. Nancy tell Shadow about his servitude to Wednesday as they drive with the body in Chapter 14?

4. Under what charge does Chad Mulligan arrest Shadow in Chapter 13?

5. Who does Chad Mulligan tell Shadow is missing in Chapter 11?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Shadow experience on the tree on the second day of the vigil?

2. What is Loki and Wednesday's plan for the battle?

3. Why have children been disappearing for years in Lakewood?

4. What transformation does Laura Moon undergo in Chapter 17?

5. Why does Easter not want to join Wednesday's campaign, and how does he convince he to?

6. What is backstage?

7. What connection forms between Wututu and Agasu when they are taken to America?

8. What do Mr. Nancy and Shadow do in Chapter 19?

9. How do Sam Black Crow and Shadow connect in Chapter 13?

10. What betrayal occurs in the ranks of the new gods at the end of Chapter 17?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Coins play an important role in the novel. They are more than merely metal indicators of monetary value: they are powerful symbols. Write an essay about coins as a symbol in the novel, focusing on their value to three characters. What function do they serve beyond their monetary significance? Do they offer strength? Protection? Some other strange power? What happens when they are given or lost?

Part 1) Shadow Moon

Part 2) Mad Sweeney

Part 3) Zorya Polunochnyaya

Essay Topic 2

The mythos created by Neil Gaiman includes a backstage world, one that exists concurrent with our own. Write an essay about his world, examining its connection to humanity. How does it appear in relation our mortal existence? How do the old gods look in this backstage world? What about human beings? How are they affected by this backstage world? Is the backstage connected in any way with the afterlife?

Essay Topic 3

The belief systems that Neil Gaiman dramatically explores over the course of his novel existed before the sexual was painted as sinful. As such, many of the modern interactions with gods are of a distinctly sexual nature. Write an essay about sex as a divine act in American Gods, focusing on three instances. Part 1) Bilquis is introduced to the reader as a prostitute in Los Angeles. What odd occurrence happens when she picks up a john in this early passage? What does this occurrence say about the nature of sexuality in that belief system? Should it be feared? Is it a passage to complete immersion into the divine?

Part 2) What is the role of the sexual in the passage involving the jinn? How does his encounter with Slim the salesman end in a religious experience? Do you as a reader consider this experience to be essentially positive or negative? How does sexuality bond this spirit and this man completely and in a transformative way?

Part 3) Describe the one distinctly sexual dream that Shadow has over the course of the novel. Who does it involve? How does Shadow decide to make love to this individual? What occurs in Shadow's waking life that intimates to him that this was more than a mere dream?

(see the answer keys)

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