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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 is Mr. Town sent to collect in Virginia in Chapter 17?

2. What merciful occurrence happens at the end of the first day of Shadow's vigil?

3. In what form does the search engine appear in Chapter 12?

4. Which two paths does Zorya Polunochnyaya tell Shadow to choose between in Chapter 16?

5. Before leaving Mr. Nancy, Shadow remembers that Ganesha told him to do what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Shadow Moon interact with the camp of the new gods in Chapter 14?

2. How does Shadow's journey in Chapter 16 end?

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

4. What major plot development does Shadow witness from his jail television in Chapter 13?

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

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

7. What is the nature of Wednesday's vigil?

8. What does Shadow experience on the tree on the first day of the vigil?

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

10. How does Czernobog take his prize from Shadow in Chapter 20?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

AMERICAN GODS takes place in all of America simultaneously, but much of its action is focused on the small town of Lakeside. This town is, in essence, the novel's main setting. Write an essay profiling the setting of Lakeside, focusing on three character residents and their relationship to the town. What is each resident's function in the town? Is this resident harboring a secret of some sort? Is he or she living with some pain, desire, or inner demon? How does this character react to Shadow's arrival in Lakeside?

Essay Topic 2

The premise of Neil Gaiman's novel is founded on the notion that the gods whose belief systems came to America with immigrant peoples have lived in some human form in America of centuries. As such, Gaiman is tasked with the duty of creating a human character that represents something essential about each god. Write an essay on the personification of the intangible, focusing on three belief systems:

Part 1) Czernobog and his three daughters are a Russian family living in Chicago. What belief system do these four characters represent? What duties do they perform, and how are these duties manifest in a modern America? As modern characters, how have the traditional duties of these gods adapted to a new era?

Part 2) Mr. Nancy is clearly intended to represent the African god Anansi. Describe Mr. Nancy, both his physical appearance and the occupation he has in modern America. How does this coalesce with his role as the African trickster god? When Shadow enters the realm of the gods, how does Mr. Nancy's appearance change to reflect Anansi's true form?

Part 3) Ibis and Jacquel represent two Egyptian gods in the novel. List every aspect of their personalities that links them with this. When Shadow undergoes his passage into death, how do Jacquel and Ibis play an integral role?

Essay Topic 3

In AMERICAN GODS, death is not necessarily an end. Because the plot deals in the eternal and the divine, characters die and then return to life for various reasons. Write an essay about death in AMERICAN GODS, focusing on three characters who pass back and forth between life and death. How does each character die? Does he or she choose death? If so, why? What brings each character back from death, and are they changed in some way?

Part 1) Laura Moon

Part 2) Wednesday

Part 3) Shadow Moon

(see the answer keys)

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