View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did chick always think was important to a person's memory?

2. Why does Posey tell Chick in Section 3: Part 2 that she did not want to ask for money from his father?

3. When Chick's father asks to drive him home from a college baseball game, what does he do that causes Chick to feel all is right with the world?

4. What injury did Chick suffer during spring training while playing professional baseball?

5. What does Miss Thelma's family think she is doing?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Posey often do for some of the patients in the hospital where she worked as a nurse?

2. What does Chick hear when he answers the phone at Rose's house?

3. Who gave Chick his nickname?

4. Who encourages Chick to leave town the day of his mother's birthday? Why?

5. What are the two days at college Chick shares with the reader?

6. What job does Chick learn his mother did in order to help pay his college tuition?

7. Why did Chick not want his mother to go to his dorm room with him?

8. What does the Italian woman say when she catches sight of Posey and Chick in her mirror?

9. What metaphor did Posey often use for the death of her patients when she was a nurse?

10. Who does Chick say the ghost in his life truly was?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the narrator. Why does the narrator not tell the reader who she is at the beginning of the novel? Why does the narrator suggest she has only just met Chick Benetto when in fact she has known him her whole life? Who is the narrator? What role does the narrator play in Chick Benetto's attempted suicide? What caused the narrator to play this role in Chick Benetto's suicide? What changes in the narrator's relationship with Chick Benetto between the death of Posey, the near death of Chick Benetto, and Chick's telling of this story? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss one of the following and explain how it is a turning point within the plot:

1) Chick's car accident

2) The visit to Miss Thelma

3) The visit to the home of Chick's father

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Posey. What is Posey's real name? What is her profession? How does Chick feel when he learns that his mother cleaned houses to help pay for his college tuition? Why is Chick surprised by this? What does this choice say about Posey and her love for her children? What does this choice say about Posey's life after her divorce? Why did Posey stop working as a nurse? What does that say about Posey's morals? About the morals of others? Why did Posey never remarry?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 888 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample