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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. Why does the company travel at night?

2. When does the Kid talk to people when he is on the road?

3. What state is the gang heading toward?

4. What do the gang have a contract to do?

5. What does Captain White think is still not over?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is in the old presido?

2. Describe the Kid's early life.

3. How does the Judge sort out the problem between the soldiers and Glanton when paying for the guns?

4. How does Toadvine persuade Glanton to let him, the Kid and the Kentuckian soldier to join?

5. Why does the Captain want to fight the Mexicans?

6. Describe the landscape in this chapter.

7. What do the prisoners see when they are let out of their cells?

8. Why does the Kid join the army?

9. How does the Kid get to Nacogdoches?

10. Where is the Kid taken when he is arrested?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Blood Meridian is a popular book which has greatly influenced modern literature. Choose a book written after Blood Meridian that you think was influenced by the novel and discuss their similarities in terms of:

a) plot

b) character

c) themes

Essay Topic 2

What comparisons can be drawn between Samuel Chamberlain's My Confession and Blood Meridian? Which is the more accurate account and why? Why does McCarty uses Chamberlain's novel as a reference point?

Essay Topic 3

The novel is set mostly in Texas.

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

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

3) How do you think the Texas settings of the novel contribute to the novel's violent tone?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 753 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample