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. How does Harley get a mirror outside the Y bar?

2. What kind and what color of truck does Josiah drive?

3. What do Tayo, Leroy and Emo earn in the war?

4. What does the old Mexican man bring Tayo when Tayo is at the café?

5. What is Tayo’s mother doing before he is born that his Auntie sees?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Tayo free the cattle and what kind of animal does he see when he is freeing the cattle?

2. How does Josiah’s sister feel about Night Swan?

3. What happens with Tayo when he first gets back home and where does he stay?

4. What does the woman tell Tayo when she sees him again and what is his response?

5. Where is Tayo when his friends find him and what does Tayo tell himself about them?

6. What is the difference between Tayo’s life as a soldier and his life as a civilian on a reservation?

7. What does Betonie say when Tayo says he wants to find Josiah’s cattle?

8. Who are the family members who are kind to Tayo?

9. What does Tayo first do when he goes to hunt for the cattle?

10. Where does Tayo find the cattle?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The world of the battlefield was the most hostile and threatening of all the experiences in his life. Some men seem to survive these horrors while moving on and making lives for themselves, while others are emotionally unable to cope, and Tayo was one of the latter.

How do you think Tayo’s early life might have affected his response to the battle field? Why might his reactions to battle be considered a weakness to some people? Why are his reactions not a weakness? Use examples from Ceremony to support your response.

Essay Topic 2

Tayo must deal with a lifelong self-concept fostered by Auntie and both the Pueblo Indians and the white people that he is somehow an outcast and unfit because he is neither white nor Indian.

Discuss the ways in which a person might be affected by feeling like he does not fit into any group or culture. Include in the discussion reasons the Indians and the whites might view Tayo as not belonging to their group. Use examples from Ceremony to support your response.

Essay Topic 3

When Ku'oosh comes to Tayo, he brings medicines — the Indian tea and the blue corn, but he also brings stories, another form of medicine.

Discuss why stories might help a person dealing with mental or emotional agony. What are two stories Tayo is told and how do you think they related to his situation?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 940 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample