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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 does Piri ask to dance?

2. What does the Chinese doctor ask Piri?

3. What does Piri say he has to do when he moves to a new neighborhood?

4. Where does Piri think his father will be when he arrives home?

5. Which member of his family does Piri look most like?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Piri ensure that he becomes part of the TNT gang?

2. Describe Piri's time with the baseball team at his new school.

3. Describe Piri's job as a shoeshine boy.

4. How do Marcia and her friends react to Piri's asking Marcia to dance?

5. How does Piri's father react to Piri's temporary blindness?

6. How does Miss Washington help Piri in this section?

7. Why does Piri think Crutch has a good way of looking at racism?

8. How do Piri and his mother react differently to Paulie's death?

9. Describe the way of life in Harlem.

10. How does Piri react to the news that his father is having an affair?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine Piri's writing style. How would you describe his prose style? What kind of vocabulary does he use? Does he use any specific writing techniques? What meaning does Piri's style give to his story?

Essay Topic 2

Why has gang culture become such a big part of life in the poorer areas of America? Why does Piri feel he needs to be part of a gang?

Essay Topic 3

Examine Piri's time in prison.

1) What concessions did Piri have to make in prison to survive?

2) How did prison change Piri?

3) What kind of person do the students think Piri would have become if he had not gone to prison?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 692 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample