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 are the women doing by the side of the road when Geryon, Herakles, and Ancash pass them in the end of “Car”?

2. How do Herakles, Ancash, and Geryon plan to travel to the volcano in “Eyewitnesses”?

3. On whose shoulder does Geryon rest his head while traveling in “Gladys”?

4. What does Geryon create for Ancash in “Photographs: *1748”?

5. What is described in the photograph in the opening line of “Photographs: The Meek”?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Lazer? How is his character introduced?

2. What is significant about Geryon's job in "Freedom"?

3. What is significant about Ancash's legend of his people in “Eyewitnesses”?

4. How do the soldiers describe the volcano in “Photographs: I Am A Beast”?

5. What is the central conflict in “Photographs: Like and Not Like”?

6. How does Geryon feel about his circumstances while traveling in “Aeroplane”?

7. What does the term “Mitwelt” refer to in this poem?

8. What is foreshadowed through the discussion of lava in "AA"?

9. What does the title of the poem “Gladys” refer to?

10. How is the setting described in “Roof”?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the encounter between Geryon and the centaur. What do you think is foreshadowed by this encounter? How is the centaur described? What do you think the centaur represents metaphorically in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

How is Geryon's character introduced in the narrative? How old is Geryon when his character is introduced in the first poems from “Red Meat: Fragments of Stesichoros”? What does Geryon look like?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's allusions to Gertrude Stein and to Homer in Autobiography of Red. How are these authors compared to Stesichoros? In what way have these authors innovated literature and/or poetry? What is said about the power of words in Stein's quote in the beginning of the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 798 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample