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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 is the condition of Henry Lamb at the end of Chapter 6?

2. To what elemental force does Reverend Bacon compare the nascent minority anger in Harlem?

3. How do the McCoys arrive at the society function at the beginning of Chapter 15?

4. What embarrassing thing happens to the landlord as he waits for Germaine Boll to return?

5. Where are Judy and Campbell when Sherman returns home in the evening?

Short Essay Questions

1. What transformation occurs in Fallow's outlook on life during this chapter?

2. How does Sherman McCoy's self-image change during the course of Chapter 3?

3. What concerns Sherman McCoy about taking Martin and Goldberg to his garage?

4. After hearing Sherman's story, what is Freddy's concern?

5. What realities does Tommy Killian elucidate for Sherman?

6. How does Kramer's attempt to impress his liberal friends in Chapter 10 backfire?

7. How does Annie Lamb's situation make her cooperation with the police difficult?

8. What are Kramer's principle concerns about the Henry Lamb case?

9. What is the Mayor's principle fear during his town hall in the Prologue?

10. How does Fallow falsify the source of his information regarding the Mercedes search?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As life becomes more complicated and precarious for Sherman McCoy, fewer and fewer supportive people in his life offer him assistance. This is a shame, because those who are not connected to the case are the most sensible and honest around him, his family. Write an essay about the three truth-tellers in his family. How does Sherman lose each of them? How do each of them serve in some way as his conscience?

Part 1) Judy McCoy

Part 2) Sherman's Father

Part 3) Campbell McCoy

Essay Topic 2

Abe Weiss is in many respects the driving force behind all the action of the novel. Write an essay about Abe Weiss and how the plot is a vehicle for his actions. What does he ultimately want? How does the Henry Lamb case become important to that objective? What measures does Abe Weiss take to achieve this objective through Kramer, Sherman, and Fallow?

Essay Topic 3

Peter Fallow is a catalyst for much of the action in the novel. He is also the most successful of the major characters, rising from the ashes of his own inequity over the course of the novel. Write an essay about the Fallow character as a satiric perversion of the "rags to riches" story. Does Fallow ever accomplish anything on his own? If talent is not his ticket to stardom, what is in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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