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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. What book did Janisse read that caused her to look closely at an anthill in the junkyard and to simply the furnishings in her room?

2. Why did Lee Ada and Frank elope?

3. What was the name of the closest mental hospital to the Rays' home, where many family members and neighbors of theirs spent time?

4. At what store did Beulah shop every Friday, rain or shine?

5. Who was NOT one of the television evangelists Clyo watched fervently in her later years?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Janisse feel about her mother when she was a child?

2. Why did Janisse choose to call her father Frank rather than the sheriff or the wildlife officer or someone else when she could not talk the fruit vendor into turning over the distressed tortoise he had just painted with gold and silver paint?

3. What aspect of her parents' relationship did Janisse feel jealousy about?

4. Why did so many strangers from other places stop by the family's junkyard?

5. What does Janisse mean when she writes that the last chapter of Proverbs describes her mother Lee Ada better than anything she herself could attempt?

6. How does the concept of determinism emerge in the final paragraph of the chapter entitled Poverty?

7. What story does Janisse use to show how careful and smart her grandmother Clyo was when trying to run her bootlegging operation without getting caught?

8. What is the main characteristic present in indigo snakes that led to much of their endangered status, in addition to the fact that they use endangered gopher tortoises' burrows as shelter?

9. Rather than disciplining the children by spanking them or hurting them in any other way, what methods did Lee Ada use to get the children to behave?

10. Beyond just the loss of their physical homes, what does Janisse mean when she writes that all of the animals who live among longleaf pines face "loss of place" (142) as a result of logging?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain the significance of Janisse Ray's abject rejection of her great-grandfather Pun's advice to not "take more on your heart than you can shake off on your heels." How does her rejection of this maxim relate to the larger themes within the memoir?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze the chapter entitled Built By Fire, discussing at least three different literary devices the author uses within the chapter and stating the main message the author is sending to the reader within the chapter.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's infrequent and therefore prominent use of second person within her memoir. What is the context for each of these instances and what effect does the author intend these usages of second person language to have upon the reader?

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