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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 is the nickname Frances and Russ call their mutual sexual tension?

2. Christmas Eve, what are Perry and Judson out doing together?

3. Who does Marion feel can excite her more than Russ ever could?

4. What did Perry steal from his brother Clem to buy drugs before the mission trip to the Navajos?

5. Why did Russ’s old Navajo friend Keith Durochie tell him not to go to Kitsillie on the church mission trip?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the “experiment” that Frances wants to do with Russ?

2. Where does Russ get his morals and values from his upbringing?

3. What happened to the Blues records that Frances borrowed from Russ?

4. Explain how Russ’s relationship with Rick Ambrose goes from love, to hate to love over the course of the novel.

5. Why did Russ feel that he was a failure sexually to Frances?

6. Why does Becky have an argument with Clem regarding Tanner?

7. What does Marion say to Clem when he says that he is going into the military to go to the Vietnam War?

8. Why does Charlie Durochie call Russ a nickname while he worked on the Navajo lands, and what was the story behind it?

9. What does Russ feel when Marion rejects him in bed for the first time?

10. Why does Clem hate Russ for not going to war when he was at an age to do so?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about how for her whole life, Marion was jealous of her sister Shirley and her laissez-faire or casual perspective of men. By the end of the novel, Marion had the same ideas as Shirley in regard to Marion’s ideas of the worth of men in a woman’s life. Focus on the life events that changed Marion to become more like the carefree sister Shirley whom she never appreciated when she was alive.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay on two scenes where there are encounters with angels mentioned by a character in the novel. Do these characters believe that they saw real angels, or someone who just acted angelic towards the character experiencing the event in question?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay on why Russ ran away from Frances when they were smoking marijuana in her kitchen, when she was obviously trying to get him in the mood to have sex. It was what Russ had said he had wanted from Frances, but why did he fail to have sex with her in her house, when given the chance? What did this say about Russ’s character and integrity?

(see the answer keys)

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