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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 theme runs through 'Brothers and Keepers'?

2. Where does the word 'jail' come from?

3. Why did John's father move to Pittsburgh?

4. What does John say he feels about escaping to Wyoming?

5. When did Robby's robbery-murder take place?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does John say Robby has a place in Jamila's life?

2. How does John characterize the drive to the penitentiary?

3. How does John characterize the prisoners?

4. How does Robby characterize himself as a young man?

5. How does John say Robby changed his mother?

6. What kind of blackness was expected of John in college?

7. How are Jamila and Robby related in John's mind?

8. Describe the geography of "Brothers and Keepers".

9. How does John describe his and his siblings' background?

10. How does John characterize Robby's temperament?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the role of the women in "Brothers and Keepers", and how would the action and ideas in the book be portrayed differently if they were described from a woman's perspective? How would John's mother, or Judy, or Tanya, tell this story? How does John include their point of view?

Essay Topic 2

According to John Wideman, Robby is locked up like an animal. What other metaphors are common to "Brothers and Keepers", and what does the web of metaphorical associations tell us about Wideman and his ideas about Robby's incarceration? Does he treat the idea playfully? Is he deadly serious about it? Does he try to magnify the significance of it through metaphor? Does he try to diminish it or domesticate it?

Essay Topic 3

What is the genre of Wideman's book about his brother? Analyze the text and make an argument. Is it a memoir? A piece of advocacy? Journalism? History? Literature? Novel? A biography? Is it dated by its material, or is it timeless?

(see the answer keys)

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