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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 do the stunt drivers at the stock-car races in the stadium at Northolt work?

2. According to Ballard, as he recuperates in the hospital, what does he state as the "only real experience" he had been through in years?

3. When the young wife of the man killed in the crash with Ballard exits her car, what does she do?

4. What is the person parked behind Ballard at the scene of the accident that killed Helen's husband doing?

5. What happens to Ballard three days after his surgery in the hospital?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't Catherine attend the funeral for Dr. Helen Remington's husband and what does it show about her character?

2. How does Dr. Helen Remington react to Ballard when he tries to speak to her in the hospital corridor?

3. How does Ballard crash his car and why is it significant?

4. What is the significance of the airport in "Crash"?

5. How does Dr. Robert Vaughan interrupt Ballard's rendezvous with the prostitute and why is it important?

6. How does Ballard regard his accident and why is it significant?

7. Describe Ballard and Catherine's marriage and explain its relevance to the novel.

8. Why does Ballard recognize Dr. Robert Vaughan when he sees him with the camera in the parking garage and why is it significant?

9. How do Ballard, Helen, and Vaughan react to Seagrave's accident at the stock-car races and why is it significant?

10. What is the chronology of the novel and why is it significant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Catherine in "Crash." As Ballard's wife, she plays a critical role in the novel. What motivates her as a character? Is she a flat or round character and why?

Essay Topic 2

In "Crash," both Helen's husband and Vaughan die early in the novel. Ballard's recollections of Vaughan and meeting him through his accident that killed Helen's husband can be seen as a sort of elegy as he grieves for both himself (in being accountable for another person's death) as well as for his friend. Choose 3 major scenes and discuss the way he expresses his grief.

Essay Topic 3

In the novel, obsession controls, empowers, and destroys characters in their fixation with particular people, objects, and ideas. Choose 3 characters and discuss their obsessions. In particular, what or who are they obsessed with and why? How does their obsession change them? Give examples throughout the course of the novel to support your statements.

(see the answer keys)

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