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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 Ballard do in the Spring?

2. When does Ballard deposit the dead man when he moves him away from the girl?

3. What does Ballard have hanging from his belt at the beginning of this section?

4. Where does Ballard go the morning after his shack burns?

5. As Ballard busies himself in the woods, who does he imagine speaking to?

Short Essay Questions

1. How were the White Caps run out of Sevier?

2. What does Ballard realize about the Ralph's idiot baby?

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

4. What crime problem is the Sheriff facing in this section?

5. How is Ballard spooked by his own footprints?

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

7. In what state is the town in this section?

8. What wakes Lester Ballard the night after his shopping spree in town?

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

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

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

Write an essay about the character of Greer and his tenuous relationship with Ballard. Divide the essay into two parts. The first should focus on Greer's actually relationship with Ballard, confined primarily to one meeting on the street. The second and more extensive portion should consist of Ballard's private delusional feud with him How does this culminate? How much do we actually know about Ballard's nemesis?

Essay Topic 3

In what way does Lester Ballard's interactions with the Sleeping Woman on Frog Mountain codify his attitude toward women and his desire to have them in a lifeless state. In the essay, compare and contrast his interaction with her to his interaction with Ralph's daughter. Also compare his defense to the police with her to his defense to the posse at the end of the novel. Pay attention to the terms he uses to describe her.

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This section contains 972 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample