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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. Where does William stop to eat lunch in Vicksburg, Mississippi?

2. What is wrong with Porfirio's leg?

3. What does Doris Walker own in Manteo, North Carolina?

4. What state does William meet Bob Andriot, Tony Harkin, and Kirk Littefield in?

5. In what state does William have a chance to learn more about his relatives?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Portal Paradise?

2. What does William learn from Claud Tyler in Dime Box, Texas?

3. When does William begin to question his plan to travel across America?

4. What figure in history is Dare County, North Carolina, named after?

5. How does William describe Johnson City?

6. What is the reaction when William orders a chocolate milkshake near Frenchman, Nevada?

7. What causes William to travel across America?

8. What does William learn from meeting James Walker and Charles Davis?

9. What does William learn from Kendrick Fritz?

10. How does William feel about having dinner with his cousin in Shreveport?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss William's journey through New Hampshire and Maine. Do people seem willing to talk to him in this region? How so? What does he learn about small business owners while in these states? Provide specific textual examples to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Black Elk, in The Sacred Pipe, writes that "the blue road is the route of 'one who is distracted, who is ruled by the senses, and who lives for himself rather than for his people.'" Does William think that this passage describes him? How do these words change William's vision of himself and the purpose of his journey?

Essay Topic 3

What epiphany does William have at the beginning of the book? What personal difficulties is he experiencing when he has this epiphany? What does he hope to achieve by acting on this idea?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 789 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample