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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 does the narrator compare his needle scars to?

2. Who lends the narrator money for heroin after his trip to the postal office?

3. Why is the narrator so happy for Casper to move in with him?

4. What causes the narrator to feel betrayed?

5. What does the narrator miss about his days when he first started taking heroin?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the boat dream symbolize?

2. What does the narrator ask for at the hospital while getting stitches, and how does the doctor reply?

3. What does the narrator say detox is like?

4. What is the narrator's favorite childhood memory?

5. What does the narrator do in the postal office that gets him arrested?

6. What happens when the narrator meets the man in the BMW?

7. What surprises the narrator most when he visits Candy at the hospital after his stay with Sally?

8. Why does the narrator think everything in his relationship will be OK after he gets stitches?

9. What do Candy and the narrator do to try and get through detoxing?

10. What happens when Candy adopts Sam?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the boat dream, and what does it mean? How does the narrator respond to this dream?

Essay Topic 2

Carl was a minor character whose presence made a big difference in the plot. How did he accomplish this? What are some ways that his presence- however brief, altered the outcome of the plot? What would have happened differently if he had not been in the book at all?

Essay Topic 3

Despair was a theme that was placed in a number of sensitive places in this plot. What are some of these places, and what role did despair play in this book?

(see the answer keys)

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