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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. Though Janisse had never seen an indigo snake in the wild until she was an adult, her older friend Milton said that he had seen them before. In what context had he seen them?

2. Janisse insists that she could never cook, telling a story about what happened the scant two times she tried to bake cookies. What happened each time?

3. What number child was Lee Ada within her family?

4. 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?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was the first person to spark Janisse's interest in the natural world and how did that person spark her interest?

2. 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?

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

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

5. What actions does Janisse relate taking in order to show how interested she was in anything advertised as free in her childhood?

6. 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?

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

8. 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?

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. 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)

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

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 3

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?

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