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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 NOT a way in which the man with the pistol's eyes are described?

2. Which figure depicted in the bank ceiling mural appears as a bull?

3. What is the main quality of the figures painted on the bank ceiling, according to Anders?

4. What adjective is NOT used to describe the pace of the bullet, in comparison to the speed of a different object?

5. The man with the pistol offers to allow Anders to perform what type of favor for him?

Short Essay Questions

1. The man with the pistol wonders aloud if Anders views him in what way?

2. Wolff compares the speeds of what two objects within Paragraph 35?

3. To what question does Anders answer, "No" in Paragraph 20 before he fights to maintain decorum?

4. How many years ago had the event at the center of Anders's one witnessed memory taken place?

5. What is Wolff's purpose for describing the eyes of the man with the pistol?

6. What specific reaction does Anders have to his vision of a cartoon bubble and how do you know?

7. What appears to be the source of the man with the pistol's anger toward Anders?

8. What factors lead to the memory from "forty years past" (35) being called up rather than another memory?

9. In what way does the narrator make a distinction between different kinds of time?

10. What goal does Anders have in mind when staring into the eyes of the man with the pistol?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is the topic of masculinity treated within Wolff’s story and how does its treatment relate to the story's depicted messages?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the story’s use of the classical art motif. Why does Anders examine particular elements of the ceiling mural depicting Zeus and Europa, for example, and how do choices such as these dovetail with messages depicted in the story?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the interplay between the resolution of Wolff’s story "Bullet in the Brain" and one of the story's main messages. How does Wolff make connections between these elements and how does their juxtaposition help Wolff get across one main message of the story?

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This section contains 863 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample