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. Easy recalls in Chapter 14 that the first time his inner voice spoke to him was when he was trapped in a barn during the war where?

2. When Mr. Albright appears at the Santa Monica pier, he tells the teenage boys badgering Easy that he’ll do what to them?

3. Where at the Santa Monica pier has Easy agreed to meet Mr. Albright in the beginning of Chapter 8?

4. Where is Easy Rawlins from originally?

5. Easy recalls in Chapter 14 that the first time his inner voice spoke to him during the war, it suggested that he kill a sniper with what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Easy respond to Mouse’s murder in the flashback in Chapter 7?

2. What does Easy’s “inner voice” advise him to do in Chapter 14?

3. How is DeWitt Albright’s office described in Chapter 3? What does Albright ask Easy to do for him here?

4. What conflict takes place at the Santa Monica pier in Chapter 8?

5. Who is the “door person” at John’s Place? What does Easy learn from this character in Chapter 4?

6. What are Easy Rawlins’s impressions of DeWitt Albright in Chapters 1 and 2?

7. Where does Easy go when he leaves the police station in Chapter 11? What interrupts his journey?

8. How are the two policemen described that Easy encounters in Chapter 10?

9. How does Easy feel about going to the Santa Monica pier in Chapter 8? Whom does he first meet there?

10. What Biblical allusion can be seen in Chapter 3?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and analyze Easy’s experiences in Normandy in World War II. How did Easy’s inner voice lead him out of harm’s way during the war? What does this voice symbolize in the novel? How did Easy’s experiences in the war shape him as a character?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze and discuss the characters of Pete Dupree and Coretta James in the narrative. How does Easy feel about each of these characters? Where does Easy know Dupree from? What happens to each of these characters in the course of the story?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Easy’s altercation with the teenagers on the beach in Chapter 8. What causes the initial conflict in this chapter? Why does Easy not defend himself against the gang? How is the theme of racism depicted through this encounter?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 938 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample