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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. Where does Cory work?

2. Instead of going back inside as Troy asks her to, what story does Rose (with Troy's help) tell Bono?

3. What does Cory tell Troy about the football recruiter who has watched Cory play with his high school team?

4. When Rose tells Troy that Cory is home, what does Troy do?

5. What does Rose say Cory wants to hear from Troy?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Troy upset about the $50 bail needed to get Gabriel out of jail?

2. When Cory come home after having been gone for years, how is he dressed?

3. Why does Troy say that he is not planning to give Alberta up?

4. What comment do Rose and Bono make about Troy's tall tales?

5. Why does Gabriel say that, although Rose and Troy's names are in Saint Peter's book, his name is not?

6. When Troy is left alone in the yard, to whom does he speak?

7. When Cory answers a question about school by simply saying "yeah," what does Troy say to Cory?

8. What does Troy say while complaining about baseball?

9. After Bono and Troy's conversation about Alberta, Bono leaves and then Troy confesses what to Rose?

10. When Bono arrives at the house, for what reason is it revealed that Bono and Troy haven't seen each other for months?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Rose's decision to raise the baby Troy fathered with another woman. In what way is her decision a reflection of her characteristics throughout the play? In what way does her decision change her relationship with Troy? In what way does her decision change her life both positively and negatively?

Essay Topic 2

Using ideas from the play, explain why you think August Wilson chose to call his play "Fences." In addition to discussing the fence which Troy builds around his house, include your ideas about what other fences exist in the play and why the fence serves as a strong symbol in the play.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how the August Wilson poem, which appears before the play, applies to the play's characters and themes.

"When the sins of our fathers visit us

We do not have to play house.

We can banish them with forgiveness

As God, in His Largeness and his Laws."

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 651 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample