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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 Homewood Avenue neighborhood?

2. What makes John think he did an unwise thing in bringing Robby to his home?

3. What does John say he wishes he had done the first time Robby was arrested?

4. How does John characterize the waiting room?

5. Who calls John at the beginning of the book?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does John characterize the prisoners?

2. Describe the style and format of 'Brothers and Keepers'.

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

4. How does John treat the prisoners?

5. In what way is John on the run as much as Robby is?

6. What does John say about his wife and daughter?

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

8. Who is Garth, and what was his importance in Robby's life?

9. Describe John's visit with Robby.

10. Describe Robby's entrance into drugs and crime.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is John's relationship with his blackness? When does he feel most black? When does he feel least black? What does his experience tell us about being black in America? How is his relationship with his blackness different from Robby's?

Essay Topic 2

Assess the proposition that prisons are an inhumane form of retribution for crimes such as Robby's.

Essay Topic 3

How has American culture changed since Wideman wrote his book? Research the incarceration of blacks and describe what has changed, if anything, in the system Wideman describes.

(see the answer keys)

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