View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which horse does Birdie ride in Chapter 8?

2. Why does Sandy want to stop running and settle down?

3. What is the name of the book the Lodge family ancestor wrote?

4. Where do Sandy and Birdie live for four years after they leave their home?

5. What decision does Deck make in Chapter 1 that radically alters Birdie and Cole's lives?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Deck's theory about ethnic restaurants?

2. What is in the present that Deck and Cole leave for Birdie?

3. Describe Birdie's ride on Mr. Pleasure in Chapter 8.

4. Why does Sandy dye her hair copper?

5. Where do Sandy and Birdie live in the four years following Sandy's flight from the FBI?

6. Why does a white couple call the police on Deck when he and Birdie are alone together in the park?

7. Describe Sandy's encounter with Redbone in Chapter 4.

8. Why does Birdie have to change her name and racial identity?

9. Once Sandy decides to end her transient wanderings, where do she and Birdie settle down?

10. What erratic behavior does Sandy begin to display after she and Deck separate?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the value placed on skin color in the novel? How does skin color relate to racial perceptions and attitudes? How does the attitude prevalent towards skin color in the novel affect the education, social acceptance, and emotional well-being of the characters in the novel? How might perceptions about skin color affect Birdie's future children? Cole's future children?

Essay Topic 2

What is the significance of WASPs in the novel? How does Sandy identify a WASP? What ironies are evident in her description? How does Sandy's perceptions of WASPs affect both her and Birdie's characters?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Sandy's development of paranoia after she and Deck separate. How does Sandy's paranoia motivate her? What effect does it have on other characters and how do they react to Sandy? Is her paranoia genuine? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,165 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample