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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. According to Ballard, what are the causes of all trouble in life?

2. What does the "Sevier County pocketknife society" do at their meetings outside the police station?

3. What is the sleeping woman wearing when Ballard finds her?

4. Which of the following is not something that happens in the melee in the police station?

5. What target does Ballard shoot at the fair's shooting gallery?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do people react to Ballard in the Six-Mile Church?

2. What process does the blacksmith use to sharpen Ballard's axe head?

3. How does Ballard win three prizes?

4. How is Lester Ballard's neck injured?

5. What changes does Ballard undergo in Chapter 14 (pp. 40-43)?

6. Why does Ballard abruptly leave the Dumpkeeper's house in Chapter 16?

7. Describe the interchange that Ballard has with the Dumpkeeper's blonde daughter.

8. Why does Ballard tear the head off of Squire Helton's cow?

9. What do the Dumpkeeper and Ballard do on their days together?

10. Describe Lester's new home.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Certain chapters of the novel are told from a first-person point-of-view and involve Sevier residents attempting to explain Ballard's past. Write an essay charting Ballard's transition form victim to bully to societal tumor, framing it in discussion of the following chapters:

Part 1) The man who discusses Ballard's loss of his mother and father.

Part 2) The man who tells the story of Ballard as a child bully.

Part 3) The man who talks about Ballard's younger jobs.

Essay Topic 2

Do you think that Lester Ballard is an essentially evil man or simply a weak individual driven to extremity by hardship? Write an essay in three parts focusing on two instances in the novel that illustrate your position and one that refutes the opposite view. Be sure to focus on his crimes, childhood, and general mental state.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the Dumpkeeper. This essay should be comprised of three paragraphs. The first should focus on his living situation and how it reflects a weakness of resolve. The second should involve his crimes. In what ways is he as perverse as Ballard? The final paragraph should be an examination of the enabling relationship that he and Ballard have.

(see the answer keys)

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