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. What does Sam collect in his job in Chapter I?

2. How many children do Lester and Oriel Lamb have in Chapter II?

3. Fish Lamb seems to recognize everyone in his family except for whom in Chapter III?

4. Whose idea is it initially to open a small grocery store in an empty room in the house at Number One Cloud Street in Chapter III?

5. Which of the Lamb daughters is a short-haired tomboy that does not want to marry?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Fish’s mental state transformed in Chapter V? What has led to this transformation?

2. What scene is depicted in the brief section prior to the opening of Chapter I?

3. What events occur in January of 1951, according to the narrator in Chapter V?

4. What question is raised by Sam’s intuition about his luck changing in the beginning of Chapter IV?

5. How do Sam’s actions in Chapter III propel the plot of the narrative forward?

6. Who moves into Cloudstreet after Quick Lamb has left home in Chapter V? How is this character introduced?

7. What is noteworthy about the narratives of Quick and Fish Lamb in Chapter IV?

8. How does the luck of the Pickles family change at the end of Chapter IV?

9. How do the Pickles family members differ from the Lambs in their perception of luck, as noted in Chapter III?

10. How does the author examine the themes of heredity and family in Chapter I?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is the theme of “luck” illustrated through the character of Sam Pickles? What are Sam’s feelings about the malleability of luck? How does Sam’s luck influence the events in the story? What symbolism supports this theme?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze and discuss Sam Pickles’s gambling addiction and its effects on the Pickles family. Why does Sam begin gambling again in the beginning of Chapter IV? What does he believe signifies the end of his bad luck? Are Sam’s premonitions about his luck generally correct or incorrect in the narrative?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author’s depiction of the house at Number One Cloud Street in the novel. How large is the house? What history of the home is detailed in Chapter III? In what ways is the author’s depiction of the house similar to his depiction of the novel’s characters? What does this foreshadow?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 850 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample