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. Once David finds out that Nic's phone has been pinging against towers in three states, whom does he call for help?

2. While attending Hampshire College, Nic finds a sponsor who is a graduate student attending what college?

3. When David calls the rehab facility at which Nic works, what do they report?

4. Down what highway does Karen chase Nic when she sees him drive past the family home?

5. What make of car does Nic drive?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what purpose does Sheff use the allusion to the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?

2. For what purpose does Sheff use the shark and the cormorant simile?

3. What element does Sheff name as "the bitterest irony of early sobriety" (228)?

4. What major medical emergency befalls David Sheff just before Nic's eighteenth birthday?

5. What do the majority of experts recommend with regard to the length of a rehab stay and the need for after-care?

6. What does Sheff mean when he calls addiction an "equal-opportunity affliction" (177)?

7. For what reason does Sheff warn the parents of addicted children to avoid certain music?

8. Experts David consults say that addicts are skilled at exploiting what aspects of their parents?

9. What distinction does Sheff make between useful guilt and guilt that is not useful?

10. Discuss examples of contingency management strategies that have been shown to be effective in managing addiction.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the connection Sheff draws between his own experiences as the father of an addict and the state of the opioid crisis plaguing twenty-first century America.

Essay Topic 2

How does David Sheff go about breaking the text into parts and how do these structural elements help to advance the memoir’s themes, mood, and argumentation?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the motif of sound within David Sheff's memoir Beautiful Boy.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,074 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample