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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. How is the first man that the four men encounter in Oree described?

2. In what season do the men take their canoe trip?

3. What does Ed do when the owl hunts from the pole of his tent?

4. Why does Lewis think he can find the Cahulawassee River himself?

5. On the first day of the canoe trip, for what does Lewis tell Ed he wants to be ready?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Ed react badly when he goes to the hospital to talk to Lewis and sees patrol cars out front?

2. On the second day of the canoe trip, why does Lewis rearrange the gear to lighten Ed and Bobby's load?

3. After getting back down the cliff, why is Ed enraged with Bobby for doing exactly what Ed expected him to do?

4. What's the significance of the owl hunting from Ed's tent the first night?

5. At the luncheon, why does Ed think Bobby and Drew won't take the canoe trip?

6. How do the police in Aintry verify the truth of the stories of the men?

7. Why does a strange noise bother Ed during the first night of the trip?

8. Learning that Ed killed their attacker, why is Bobby surprised that Ed did what he'd set out to do?

9. How does Drew describe the kind of music he plays the first night of the canoe trip?

10. Describe the mood that comes over Ed when he returns to his office and is alone with his thoughts.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The four men who embark on the canoe trip are representative of typical suburban men of the seventies. Write a few paragraphs about the following:

1) Describe a typical suburban man of the seventies.

2) Compare and contrast that man with a typical suburban man of today. Explain the differences and similarities.

3) The story is set in the South. Would the men have differed from men from similar suburbs in the North? If so, describe what those differences would be.

Essay Topic 2

Good stories follow a predictable path from beginning to end. Divide Deliverance into sections. Describe each section, and tell how each contributes to the telling of the story and to the suspense. Describe the climax. Describe the last section, and tell how you think it succeeds in wrapping up all loose ends.

Essay Topic 3

This is the story of Ed's transformation from a man drifting through life into a man of action. Write about one of the following:

1) Trace how the author accomplished that transformation through the events that happened to him, telling how his decisions at these moments contribute to his transformation and to his actions afterward. If he had made other decisions, how would those differences affect the structure of the novel?

2) The title of the novel tells its theme, which is followed through several strands of the story. Give at least two ways the title describes what happened to characters in the novel and explain your reasoning.

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