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

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

3. Nic finds a job at a rehab facility called what?

4. After begging his father to be put into another rehab program just after his near-fatal overdose, Nic takes what action?

5. The teacher of what subject at Hampshire College writes to David to express her sadness at the news of Nic's relapse?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does David describe as his usual routine when Nic goes missing?

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

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

4. How late is Nic when he sets a lunch date with his father at the restaurant Steps of Rome?

5. What are the definitions of priming and cuing, behaviors that can lead to relapse?

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

7. Discuss Sheff's use of medical diction in order to depict the theme of family bonds.

8. What observation does Nic make about the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Sheff's use of the first person point of view serve the author's purposes over the course of the memoir Beautiful Boy? Discuss how the author's choice of point of view helps to advance the treatment of at least three particular themes within the text.

Essay Topic 2

Examine David Sheff’s use of characterization methods to portray his own family members. What effect do these characterization methods have on the memoir's inherent themes and messages?

Essay Topic 3

What ultimate message is David Sheff's memoir Beautiful Boy sending about the nature and value of compassion?

(see the answer keys)

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