View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is playing music while Dwayne is in the hotel at the beginning of Chapter 18?

2. What does The Narrator note about Eliot after he has arrived in Midland City?

3. What does Kilgore see that caused the traffic jam he was stuck in?

4. Who is the first victim of Dwayne's psychotic, violent rampage?

5. What does The Narrator claim to be unaware of in the Epilogue?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the parallel between Dwayne's irrelevant phrases and the narrative?

2. Why is Harry devastated at the beginning of Chapter 13?

3. What does The Narrator convince Kilgore of at the end of the novel?

4. What do Kilgore and the driver drive by in West Virginia and who was it founded by?

5. What is the book, Now It Can Be Told, that Kilgore reads in the car about?

6. What is the connection between Dwayne's house and the stream of pollution that Kilgore wades through?

7. Why does Bunny not fight back when his father, Dwayne, assaults him in the hotel lounge?

8. What does Dwayne do to Francine on his violent rampage?

9. Why does the sight of The Narrator in the hotel Lobby make Kilgore nervous?

10. What is the book the driver describes having read that Kilgore realizes is one of his own novels about?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Who is The Narrator in Breakfast of Champions? The unnamed narrator claims to be a real person, but defies conventional literature and even physics at numerous points throughout the plot. What is his role within the novel? Using specific examples from the text, write a thesis explaining who you think The Narrator is within the novel.

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 22, The Narrator decides to speed up the pace of the narrative. What does he do in order to accomplish this? Does it in any way contradict his previous claim of all characters and details being of equal importance? Support your answer with specific examples from the text.

Essay Topic 3

What is the significance of Kilgore's comment at the police station being picked up by a newspaper and, thus, causing widespread panic among New Yorkers? What are the circumstances surrounding Kilgore's being at the police station and what are circumstances following afterward, which Kilgore is never even made aware of? Cite specific examples from the text to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 812 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample