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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 food does Ballard buy in the general store on the other side of the mountain?

2. Where is Ralph's daughter when Ballard shoots her?

3. What does Ballard blame for the burning down of his house?

4. What strikes Ballard as he crosses the rushing creek?

5. How many wrist watches is Ballard trying to sell?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ballard do at his old property, now Greer's?

2. How does Ballard subsist as the harsh winter descends?

3. What does Ballard do on his trip into town?

4. What point does Mr. Fox make to Ballard about his debt to the grocery?

5. How does Ballard react to Ralph's daughter's rejection of his advances?

6. How do the police catch Kirby selling jars of whiskey?

7. Why does Ballard go to Blount County?

8. Describe the story Fate tells about the 1899 hanging.

9. Describe Ballard's appearance at the end of this section.

10. Why does Ballard decide to move the dead girl's body to an upper room?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Lester Ballard's interaction with animals is in many ways a reflection of his interaction with human beings. Write an essay about his individual meetings with animals and how they coincide with later meetings with people (his trailing his gun on a cat as he does Greer, his accidentally killing the cow as he thoughtlessly assaults the Sleeping Woman). From these individual meetings, develop a thesis about his development - or lack thereof - of relationships.

Essay Topic 2

By the end of the novel, Lester Ballard has accumulated a strange menagerie of items in his cave. Each has a particular meaning and function for him, and each reflects a sort of perversion of traditional values and relationships. Write a paragraph about each of these items, how they came into Ballard's possession, and what they mean thematically:

Part 1) The rifle

Part 2) The stuffed animals

Part 3) The women's clothes

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the Sheriff. Is he an effective law enforcer? Is he a principled man with a vision for his County? Write your essay in three paragraphs, detailing three specific episodes in the text that are driven by the Sheriff. Detail the episodes and examine how effective the character is in achieving his objective.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 965 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample