View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What caused the butterflies to swarm up from the grass?

2. What two cultures combine in Grey?

3. With whose death does the story begin?

4. How does the author describe Kiowa life in the summertime?

5. What did Grey do at about the same time she acquired Dog?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who first let Grey know that the bear was coming into her life?

2. What is the unanswered question, "Quien es?" in Chapter One of Book One?

3. What feelings do the sisters experience as their brother turns into a bear?

4. Who is the mother and who is the child in Chapter Twelve of Book One?

5. Why does Murphy Dicks feel ashamed when he talks to Grey?

6. What does Grey want her grandmother to tell her about Set?

7. What does Koi-ehm-toya see as her responsibility to the children who wander into the woods?

8. Why was it better for the Piegan people to believe that the boy was a bear than that he was a boy?

9. Why is it that Grey never has to quest after visions?

10. What does Set think is the most wonderful of God's creations?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Death is a theme in this story. Describe the various ways in which death comes to characters in the story, noting especially the conversation about dying properly between Set-Angya and Billy the Kid. What is a "proper" death? Which characters die properly? Which do not?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Momaday's use of time. For example, many Native American customs cause the reader to think of the past, but that thought will be jarred by the mention of a modern actor, car, or TV program. What point do you think the author is trying to make by using time in such fluid ways?

Essay Topic 3

Both Set and Grey come from more than one ancestral background. Discuss the similarities and differences between the families of each. Use direct quotations and examples from the story to support each point.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 719 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample