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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 does Troy remember about his own father?

2. What does Troy say would have happened if he hadn't taken charge of Gabriel's money?

3. What does Troy say about the Negro League?

4. As Troy complains about how everybody manages his money for him, Gabriel arrives carrying what?

5. After Rose sends Cory out to help Troy, what do Cory and Troy work on silently for some time before talking to each other?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Rose say was the reason why Troy never got to play in the major leagues?

2. For what reason does Troy rightly assume that Lyons has come to see them?

3. What does Troy say to his baby daughter?

4. Why does Troy say that it doesn't matter that he doesn't have a driver's license?

5. Why does Troy feel he is being treated unfairly at work?

6. After Lyons leaves, and Cory is left alone in the yard, what does he do, unaware that Troy is watching him?

7. Why does Gabriel say that the bad men arrested him?

8. Gabriel is no longer living at the boarding house; where has he now been taken?

9. What does Rose say Raynell brought into her life?

10. Why is Troy, many months after revealing his affair, still coming home every night?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain how foreshadowing is used effectively in the play. Give examples of at least five instances in which foreshadowing comes into play--both from the standpoint of the foreshadowing itself and the event or dialogue it predicts.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Troy's childhood, explaining what happened to his mother and how his father forced him to leave home. Examine what effect those childhood experiences have on his personality and his actions.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the structure of the play, examining the time frame during which the play is set. How does Wilson alert the audience/reader to the passage of time from scene to scene? In your analysis, include your ideas about why Wilson made the decision to start the play when Cory was a high school student and end it nearly eight years later. Discuss the ways changes in other characters could only have been accomplished by using that time frame.

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