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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. During the time Clyo worked in the cotton fields, what was one health problem from which she did NOT suffer?

2. At the time of the memoir's writing, about many red-cockaded woodpeckers were left in the United States, most of them relegated to Florida?

3. John James Audubon is famous for something besides the bird-watching society that carries his name. How did he make his living?

4. Who fell overboard when the family visited the houseboat of another local family, prompting Frank to save the person?

5. On what object did Lee Ada embroider the words, "I love you, Franklin"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What were some elements of Frank's childhood that belie the poverty his family suffered during the aftershocks of the stock market crash in 1929?

3. 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?

4. 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?

5. What is ironic about Clyo's refusal to let Frank help her improve her health and her simultaneous belief that sending the little money she has to televangelists will make her well again?

6. 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?

7. What were the two pieces of advice given to Frank by the doctor in the state mental hospital who had taken an interest in his case?

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. What are the special characteristics of living near longleaf pines that cause the lives of the animals that live near them to be "woven together?" (141)

10. How does Janisse describe the type of knowledge she had by the time she left home versus the type of knowledge she lacked at that time?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the significance of scene in which Janisse's grandfather Charlie leads Janisse to his secret copse of huckleberries? How does the author use this event as a metaphor for a particular piece of her worldview and what message does she send to the reader through her relaying of this event?

Essay Topic 2

Explicate the scene of Janisse's session of night-rappelling down the cliff. How does she use her story of the event to support the larger themes within her memoir?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the role that mental illness plays within the course of Janisse Ray's memoir. What does the reader learn about mental illness, the havoc it can wreak within a family, and how it can also bring a family closer together? How is the mental illness running throughout her family shown to have shaped who Janisse is, even though she herself does not exhibit signs of mental illness?

(see the answer keys)

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