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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. What does Marlowe go home to do?

2. Where does Marlowe wait for Geiger?

3. What does Marlowe tell Brody he can frame him for?

4. What is the name of the lead investigator for the District Attorney?

5. What does the General ask Marlowe to take off?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Carmen react to Marlowe's rejection?

2. What new light is shed on Carmen's character in chapter 15?

3. What does Marlowe find in his apartment on his return home?

4. How does Harry claim Mars killed Regan?

5. How does Marlowe get Brody to lower his gun?

6. How does Marlowe know that Jones has been poisoned?

7. What has Marlowe figured out about the case in the final chapter?

8. What information does Marlowe leave out from his story?

9. What does Marlowe claim he thought the real case was?

10. What suggestion are there that Geiger's store maybe a smut shop?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why did Chandler chose to examine pornography in the Big Sleep? What is his view is on the industry? Does he communicate this view through the character of Philip Marlowe? What was the perception of pornography in thirties America compared to what it is today?

Essay Topic 2

Examine violence in the novel:

1) How do the characters in the novel view violence? Are there are character that would think twice before shooting or hitting someone?

2) Do the characters need to be violent to cope in the world that Chandler portrays?

3) How do the students think the public reacted to the novel's violence when it was first published? How would the public react to such a book today?

Essay Topic 3

The novel is set mostly in Los Angeles.

1) What meaning does Los Angeles bring to the novel? What would you automatically presume about a novel that was set in Los Angeles?

2) How different do you think today's Los Angeles is to the Los Angeles in the novel? How do you think the novel's meaning would change if it were set in today's Los Angeles?

3) How do you think the Los Angeles settings of the novel contributes to the novel's spirtual meaning?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 765 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample