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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 reason did Frank provide for giving Lee Ada a note saying, "Yes, Lee Ada, I will love you forever."

2. What did Frank, Janisse, and Steve eat for dessert while floating down the river on their trip?

3. At the height of the red-cockaded woodpecker's population growth in the eastern United States, about how many were there?

4. What article of clothing did Lee Ada make for Janisse that caused people to call her Little Red Riding Hood?

5. In what year did Clyo finally succumb to her various maladies?

Short Essay Questions

1. What types of things did Lee Ada collect to satisfy her love for pretty things?

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

3. 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?

4. What are the characteristics of the red-cockaded woodpecker that lead to it being such a good example of the fauna losses caused by the loss of the longleaf pine?

5. When Janisse says of her grandmother Clyo and grandfather Charlie, "Both of them knew what the food symbolized and neither was willing to make further amends," (148) what does she mean?

6. 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?

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

9. How did Lee Ada's father Arthur feel about Frank's and Lee Ada's decision to elope?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the theme of fear within the memoir. What is the author telling the reader about the nature of fear, about the harm that fear can inflict, and about the methods people can use to combat it?

Essay Topic 2

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 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?

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