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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 Bernie think that Kramer is doing to Roland?

2. What is Kovisky forced to do at the the end of Chapter 31?

3. What shocks Sherman's father at the end of their conversation?

4. How much money does Tommy Killian require for a retainer?

5. Where in their condo does Sherman tell Judy about his arrest?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the story that Arthur Ruskin tells Peter Fallow at dinner.

2. Describe the scene at the Criminal Court at the end of Chapter 31.

3. What is Tommy Killian and Quigley's plan to get proof of Maria's complicity in the hit-and-run?

4. Which of Killian's promises are broken during his arrest?

5. Describe Maria Ruskin's testimony.

6. What high-minded reasoning does Weiss give for his prosecution of Sherman McCoy in Chapter 23?

7. In what way does Shelly Thomas disagree with Kramer about the McCoy case?

8. What aspects of Sherman McCoy's life are disrupted by the Henry Lamb case?

9. What happens to the Lamb family at the end of the novel?

10. Why has no one heard of Roland Auburn even though he has been in the papers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

According to Aristotle's Poetics, a tragic hero is a person that strives intently towards a certain goal only to discover that he or she has accomplished its opposite. Write an essay about Sherman McCoy as a character who has twice experienced this tragic catharsis:

Part 1) At the beginning of the novel, what does Sherman McCoy think he deserves in life? How does his pursuit of this lead him to its opposite?

Part 2) Late in the novel, Sherman discusses his early days at Pierce and Pierce with Judy. When he was younger his goals were different than they are just before he meets Henry Lamb. To what extent is this conversation a delayed catharsis about his first tragic loss? How has Sherman already lost something when the novel begins?

Essay Topic 2

The Mayor of New York is the only recurring character in the novel without a name. Write an essay about the mayor as a symbol for the political, legal, and business system of New York. What does the mayor fear? What does he consider his failures and successes? How does he cope with forces he does not understand and cannot face?

Essay Topic 3

Sherman McCoy, at the beginning of the novel, considers himself a "Master of the Universe." Write an essay about what that means in his life. How does it affect his attitude toward family? Fidelity? His work? What is Tom Wolfe saying about the nature of capitalism in the 1980s through the character of Sherman McCoy?

(see the answer keys)

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