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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. Who ends up helping Nic pay the debt he owes due to stealing checks from a family friend?

2. Who flies east with Nic to help him get settled at Hampshire College?

3. In what town do Karen and David attend their first Al-Anon meeting?

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

5. The program into which Nic checks at Hazelden will last at least how long?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the main element of twelve-step recovery programs that Nic rejects?

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

3. In what way is the theme of hope demonstrated in David's mention of St. Helena Hospital?

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

5. Whom does Sheff list as people and organizations he at times blames for Nic's problems, before returning to the idea that Nic has a disease that causes his bad behavior?

6. What new hobby does Nic take up around the time when David regains his memory after surviving a cerebral hemorrhage?

7. What distinction does Sheff make between blame and accountability?

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

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

10. What is the symbolism of Nic's note to Jasper?

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

Discuss the paradoxes inherent in the struggle against addiction and analyze how Sheff portrays these paradoxical elements within the memoir.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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