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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 type of student is James in high school?

2. Eisenhower is the first president who wears what kind of hat?

3. What does Joe stay in for twenty-five years rather than the six months originally expected?

4. Where does the author's mother take him as a two-year-old along with his four-year-old brother, Joe?

5. Mary drives the children to pick Joseph up at night. What does she do on the way home?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does James' antiwar stance affect his father?

2. How does James, the anti-war priest from a military family feel giving his first sermon?

3. What does the B-52 Bomber symbolize to James?

4. What does James realize about his desire to enter the seminary?

5. How is the Carroll family's experience in Washington, D.C.?

6. How do 1950s Americans perceive Pope Pius XII?

7. How do Joseph and Mary react to Joe junior's contraction of polio?

8. What is known about Francis Cardinal Spellman?

9. How does the celebration begin?

10. How does Joe become a part of Kelly's political hypocrisy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Joseph believes the "spoiled priest" curse is passed from him to his son.

Part 1) How does Joseph act that supports this statement?

Part 2) Why has Joseph not been able to escape this curse?

Part 3) How does his belief in this curse further push his son, James, away from him?

Essay Topic 2

Silence is a theme throughout this book.

Part 1) When are characters silent in this book?

Part 2) Why are they silent?

Part 3) How does their silence affect the choices they make and their relationships with those around them?

Essay Topic 3

James is both priest and poet.

Part 1) How does he come to be both?

Part 2) How does he struggle with these two callings?

Part 3) At the end of the book, is he a priest, poet, or both? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

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