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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 many acres did Janisse's family's land take up, including the family home and her father Frank's junkyard?

2. How often did the car crusher make a visit to the family junkyard?

3. What breed was the dog that Frank treated with painkillers and saved after it had been hit by a car on the highway?

4. What number child is Janisse within her family?

5. What object did Frank create out of driveshafts, hollow metal rods, and fence wire?

Short Essay Questions

1. Janisse said there was only one type of occasion that did not elicit shame from her role as a junkyard owner's daughter. What is the only thing that occurs that does not bring her shame?

2. Besides the fact that he thought it had better prices than other stores, why did Frank shop at Winn-Dixie?

3. The second sentence of the chapter entitled Timber says, "About the same time, the production of naval stores in North Carolina began to wane and big turpentine producers in North Carolina sashayed into Georgia" 99). What is the effect of the author's choice of the verb "sashayed" and what is her purpose in making that choice?

4. After explaining that "Ninety-eight percent of the presettlement longleaf pine barrents in the southeastern coastal plains were lost by 1986" (16), Janisse writes that she did not know about this loss as a child. However, she states, "But it is a loss that as an adult shadows every step I take" (16). What does she mean?

5. What are some ways in which Janisse shows her parents that she is a tomboy who likes to be outside in nature more than she enjoys any other activities?

6. How does the passage regarding the bank robber Foster Sellers exhibit the theme of identity prevalent throughout the memoir?

7. How does Janisse Ray use her great-grandfather Pun's career progression to show how white-collar jobs can be even more damaging to the environment than can blue-collar jobs?

8. What elements did Frank consider crucial to the business of buying?

9. How does Janisse describe her feelings toward her father when he was mentally unwell?

10. Whose idea was it to spread old shoes around underneath the grapevine and what was the intended purpose of that act?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the chapter entitled Light, Janisse Ray uses white space to surround the words "Evolve. Adapt. Survive." What is her purpose for setting these words apart from the rest of the text and how do these words relate to the many themes displayed within her memoir?

Essay Topic 2

What parallels does Janisse Ray draw between a junkyard and the wilderness throughout the memoir? How does this unique viewpoint help to get across her message to the reader concerning environmentalism and the role humans ought to inhabit in relation to nature?

Essay Topic 3

Find instances of the author drawing parallels between the creatures of southern Georgia and the people who inhabit the region. How does each instance send its own message and how do they work in concert with one another to send a larger, cohesive message to the reader of the memoir?

(see the answer keys)

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