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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. Which of the following rental cars is Fife obliged to accept?

2. The comment that “It’s like a coastal marsh between the land and the sea” (179) offers an example of which of the following?

3. At which of the following locations does Fife note his father worked?

4. For which of the following holidays does Fife note to Amy they are expected to visit his parents?

5. To which of the following does Nick Dafina compare his teenaged self and Fife’s?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Fife is asked about Joan Baez and Malcolm comments, “That’s a heartbreaker, man” (130), to what does Fife note the comment refers?

2. How does Fife differentiate biography from autobiography or interview?

3. What does Fife assert marks the end of his and Nick Dafina’s innocence?

4. How does Fife define innocence?

5. What reasons does Fife give Alicia that his marriage to Amy was wrong?

6. How is Stanley’s house described?

7. Describe the accommodations Fife details at the end of his teenaged roadtrip with Nick Dafina.

8. With what interviewing technique does Malcolm credit Fife?

9. What does Fife muse that the film crew will gain from their project?

10. How does Fife describe Amy’s reaction to Boston?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the following passage:

There’s no such thing as the end of childhood, [Fife] says to Emma. It’s only innocence—infancy—that actually comes to an end. That’s when childhood begins, and childhood is a region, not a marker. And it is vast and extends even into old age and death. It’s like a coastal marsh between the land and the sea, he explains. It’s a zone of dwarfed trees and mudflats and estuaries, where waters flow back and forth in opposite directions following the pitch and fall of the land and the phases of the moon and the shifting patterns of the winds. (179)

Do your experience and observation support Fife’s assertion about the nature of childhood? How or how not?

Essay Topic 2

Explicate the symbolism of Fife’s car breaking down at the edge of his hometown at the end of Chapter 12.

Essay Topic 3

Consider the following passage: “That’s all, just numbers, [Fife] thinks. What’s the matter with him? He’s not stupid. Be why can’t he read and interpret those numbers and as a result know that the economy is in decent shape, at least for the foreseeable future? Or not. Maybe the stock market is about to tank” (78). Explicate the implications for Fife of the passage.

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