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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 does Khe Sahn wear to Thanksgiving dinner in "Season's Greetings..."?
2. What reason does the narrator of "After Malison" give for smoking in the hotel lobby?
3. Why does the boy in the elevator refuse the Cheetos in "The Curly Kind"?
4. In "Season's Greetings", what television show does Khe Sahn learn most of her English from?
5. What excuse does Malison give to Bethany for not going out for a drink with her in "After Malison"?
Short Essay Questions
1. Describe Khe Sahn's arrival at the Dunbar home in "Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family".
2. What disgusts the narrator of "After Malison" the most during his master's writing seminar?
3. How does the author feel about adults who dress in costumes for their jobs in "Santaland Diaries"? How does he believe he will be different if he is hired as one of Santa's elves?
4. Describe "the Walrus" in "Santaland Diaries".
5. Why is Jocelyn Dunbar suspected of murdering Don and framing Khe Sahn in "Season's Greetings..."?
6. What does the narrator's mother give him before she dies in "Barrel Fever"? Why does she give him this gift?
7. Describe Santa Santa in "Santaland Diaries".
8. Which elf duty is the narrator's least favorite in "Santaland Diaries"? Why does he feel this way?
9. Who is Jamboree in "Jamboree"? How does the narrator feel about him?
10. Describe Dolph's confrontation with Alicia Cunningham in "Barrel Fever".
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Imagine if one of the stories in this collection was missing from it. Choose one of the stories and "remove" it from the collection. Write an essay:
1) explaining the role that the story plays in the collection,
2) describing how the novel would be different without the story, and
3) comment on the quality of the book without the story: Would it be better or worse? Why?
Be sure to use specific examples from the stories to support your ideas.
Essay Topic 2
Through the stories in "Barrel Fever", David Sedaris demonstrates what he believes humor is. Drawing on evidence from the stories:
1) define "humor" from Sedaris' point of view, and
2) discuss how he shows his readers what he believes is funny through his stories.
Be sure to use evidence from the stories to support your ideas.
Essay Topic 3
On the book jacket for "Barrel Fever" it is written "in David Sedaris' world, no one is safe and no cow is sacred." Select 3 of Sedaris' stories and:
1) discuss how the author's choice of subject demonstrates his irreverence, and
2) examine how the author "crosses the line" between civility and absurdity.
Be sure to use evidence from the stories to support your ideas.
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This section contains 1,021 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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