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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. Where does Ballard shoot the girl in Chapter 43 (pp. 149-153)?
2. According to Fate, how long does it take a hanged man to die?
3. What does Ballard do with the girl's body at the end of Chapter 27 (pp. 93-95)?
4. What is the only thing different about the car when Ballard returns to later in the day?
5. What season is setting in in Chapter 39 (pp. 136-137)?
Short Essay Questions
1. What does Ballard do on his trip into town?
2. How do the police catch Kirby selling jars of whiskey?
3. How is Ballard spooked by his own footprints?
4. Why does Ballard go to Blount County?
5. How does Ballard's situation change in this section?
6. What point does Mr. Fox make to Ballard about his debt to the grocery?
7. What does Ballard realize about the Ralph's idiot baby?
8. How does Ballard react to Ralph's daughter's rejection of his advances?
9. Describe Ballard's second interview by the police.
10. What imaginary conversations does Ballard have in the woods?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
The conflict between Ballard and society in the novel is reflected in many respects by a conflict between Sevier County and the wild Frog Mountain. Write an essay detailing this conflict between wilderness and town. Who is associated with either side of the conflict? What occurs in each? How is each described by the author?
Essay Topic 2
Choose one of the following to write an essay:
1.) Near the beginning of the novel, Ballard has an exchange with the Dumpkeeper's blonde daughter. He is infatuated with the girl, and she teases him incessantly. How does this coquettish girl typify Ballard's understanding of woman? What is her essential allure and danger? How does Ballard respond to it?
2.) Compare the dead girl in the car with Ralph's daughter, from Ballard's point-of-view. How do they reveal, respectively, what he wants from a companion and what he can never understand? Chart his interaction with both as indicative of this desire.
3.) Analyze the state that Ballard is in as he lives in the caves. Why do you think he collect so many women and takes to wearing their clothes and hair? What essential desire has he achieved and how has he done it?
Essay Topic 3
In the opening passages of the book, McCarthy gives a description of Ballard as a soul. In the closing passages, he creates a portrait of Ballard as a body, vivisected into its component organ systems by doctors and students. Compare these two passages under the thesis of how McCarthy portrays Ballard throughout the novel. Is he creating a portrait that we are supposed to understand or a subject we are supposed to observe?
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This section contains 1,003 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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