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| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What does Sedaris think every male reader of "Giantess" longs for?
2. What does Malison name each of the characters in his second novel in "After Malison"?
3. What game do the narrator and his siblings play during Christmas in "Diary of a Smoker"?
4. What is the author's elf name in "Santaland Diaries"?
5. What color does the narrator paint the baby's nursery in "Jamboree"?
Short Essay Questions
1. Describe Khe Sahn's arrival at the Dunbar home in "Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family".
2. What are the two reasons the narrator gives for boycotting Malison's reading in "After Malison"?
3. What does the narrator of "Giantess" expect his fellow workers to do as they are waiting in the apartment of an extremely rich client? What do they actually do?
4. Who is Trudy Chase in "Barrel Fever"? How does the narrator react to a phone call from Trudy?
5. What does the narrator's mother give him before she dies in "Barrel Fever"? Why does she give him this gift?
6. Describe "the Walrus" in "Santaland Diaries".
7. What theme joins the four scenarios in "The Curly Kind"?
8. How does the narrator deal with parents requesting to visit a Santa of a certain race in "Santaland Diaries"?
9. How does the narrator of "Diary of A Smoker" feel about smoking?
10. What connection do the elves working at Santa Land have with "One Life to Live" in "Santaland Diaries"?
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
In "Barrel Fever", the author David Sedaris frequently pushes his topics to the point of absurdity. Select three of the stories where Sedaris uses absurdity and:
1) discuss how absurdity is used in the story,
2) analyze why absurdity is used in the story, and
3) determine the purpose of the absurdity in the stories. Why does Sedaris like to point out the absurd in life?
Be sure to use evidence from the stories to support your ideas.
Essay Topic 3
Two of Sedaris' stories in "Barrel Fever" ("The Last You'll Hear From Me" and "Don's Story") are written as speeches. In your essay,
1) discuss how speeches are typically used by people,
2) discuss how Sedaris uses the genre of speech in each of these stories, and
3) analyze the statement the author is trying to make about the genre of speech.
Be sure to use evidence from the stories to support your ideas.
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This section contains 1,093 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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