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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 Robby sick with after Chicago?

2. What does Cecil's mother think will happen if he follows her advice?

3. What happens to Robby when John visits Robby?

4. What does John say he wonders when the sees Robby?

5. What does Robby say is the way out?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Robby's graduation.

2. How did Robby and his crew pull off the robbery?

3. What did Robby and Michael Dukes and Cecil Rice do sloppily while they were getting away?

4. How did the botched job feel wrong from the start, according to Robby?

5. Why did Robby and his crew turn from drugs to crime?

6. What does Robby say is the purpose of educate?

7. Describe Robby's meeting with Johnny-Boy.

8. How does Robby characterize his career in fencing operations?

9. What does Robby say about his educate in his speech?

10. What pact did the robbers make, and how did it get broken?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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

Essay Topic 2

How does John characterize his brother? What literary techniques does he use to bring his brother to life as a literary character? How does his characterization change throughout the course of the memoir, as he writes one draft and then another? What does John learn about himself and his brother in the process of trying to capture this story in writing?

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.

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