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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. Who visits the Reverend Bacon at the beginning of Chapter 25?

2. What does the staff of the restaurant give Peter Fallow after Arthur Ruskin's body is removed?

3. What physical attribute of the Italian court artist does Kramer notice most?

4. How much money does Sherman withdraw from his account the day before his arrest?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Sherman's opinion of his father change in Chapter 21 and why?

3. Describe Maria Ruskin's testimony.

4. What simple domestic act does Sherman attempt the morning after his arrest, and what happens?

5. Describe Lopwitz's reaction to the news of Sherman's arrest and what it means to Sherman.

6. What happens to Sherman McCoy in the holding cell awaiting the calling of his case?

7. How does Larry Kramer characterize Roland Auburn in Chapter 19?

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

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

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 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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