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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. Why does Chick lie to his family about a trip out of town on his mother's birthday?

2. What voice does Chick hear as he goes to answer the door in his mother's house after their visit to Rose?

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

4. 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?

5. What does Posey tell Chick about how she happens to visit people who are dying?

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 Miss Thelma claim will keep her memory alive for years to come?

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

4. Whose voice does Chick hear as he goes to open the door at his mother's house in Section 3, Part 1?

5. Why does Chick suspect he is suffering from temporary insanity?

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

7. Who encouraged Chick to drop out of college?

8. Why was Posey not impressed with Chick's baseball scholarship?

9. Why was Posey fired from her job as a nurse?

10. Who gave Chick his nickname?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss ghost stories. Why does the narrator suggest this novel might be a ghost story? Is this novel a ghost story? Who are the ghosts? Are they scary ghosts? Is this novel meant to frighten the reader? Explain. How do the ghosts in this novel change the course of the main character's life? Is this a good change?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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