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. Where does the narrator say is "home" 3,000 miles away in Chapter 1?

2. What name does the narrator refer to himself as a child in Chapter 7?

3. Who does the narrator stay up all night talking gibberish with in Chapter 19?

4. Who arrives after the gang at the cabin in Chapter 18?

5. Where was Jack Kerouac born and raised?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the protagonist's feelings of himself in Chapters 1 and 2 foreshadow that which occurs later in the novel?

2. Who does Jack quote in Chapter 10 as he leaves the cabin? What does he say?

3. What in Chapter 3 is an example of foreshadowing?

4. What is Jack's reaction to Cody's disappointment to see him drinking in Chapter 13?

5. Who arrives in Chapter 5? How does Jack's perspective change after this visit?

6. What does Jack tell himself and thus do in the beginning of Chapter 3? What does the driver tell him?

7. Why is the cabin as isolated as it is? What activity takes Jack an entire day in Chapter 6?

8. What exposition does the narrator relay of Cody's imprisonment in Chapter 13?

9. In what ways does the narrator reflect upon the history of Big Sur in Chapter 7?

10. What does Jack recall of George Baso in Chapter 15?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Kerouac's use of metaphor, simile and personification in the novel. What effect does the author create with this technique?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss and describe the foreshadowing which Kerouac used in Big Sur. How overt is his use of foreshadowing? What are his intentions with this technique?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of "man and nature" in Big Sur. What symbols and motifs are used to illustrate this theme?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 934 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample