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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. Who first suggests a white-water canoe trip?

2. How much does Lewis offer each Griner brother to drive their cars to Aintry?

3. What tempts Ed to pull out of the canoe trip at the last minute?

4. What kind of men work at the graphics studio?

5. What does the blue light of the Kitt's photo shoot remind Ed of?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is the sheriff in Aintry more sympathetic to the men than his deputy is?

2. How does the group feel after getting through their first whitewater safely?

3. Who does Ed believe is Lewis' best friend?

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

5. When no body has been found after he first day of dragging the river, why doesn't Ed return the next day when the search for the body will continue?

6. After finding the body of the man he shot and realizing he might have shot the wrong man, how does Ed feel?

7. Years after the trip, why do Ed and Lewis remain friends even though the experience has affected them in different ways?

8. After the canoe trip, why is Ed not sorry when Bobby disappears from his life, even though, before the trip, he enjoyed knowing him?

9. After the rape, why does Ed side with Lewis and cast the deciding vote to hide the body instead of reporting the incident to the authorities?

10. In the After section, why does Ed go to Bobby's room at Biddiford's?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When the men find Drew's body, they realize he may not have been killed by a gunshot after all. How does this discovery add to the plot twists and turns of the story? How does the uncertainty about the cause of Drew's death change the men's future actions? Explain how events following Drew's death are affected by the men's original belief that he was shot to death, then by the uncertainty about the cause of death. What did the author hope to accomplish with this plot twist?

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the importance of the sheriff to the story. How does he differ from the rural Southerners the main characters met during their canoe trip? What about his actions and conversations point out those differences? How does the author use him to symbolize a type of Southerner that is neither the typical suburbanite represented by the main characters nor the rural Southerners who attacked them. Cite other examples of Southerners met briefly on the canoe trip who may fit this third character type.

(see the answer keys)

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