3. Who is the first family in "Raising Cain: A Case History of the First Family"?
(a) Adam, Eve, Cain, and Able.
(b) The Clinton family.
(c) The Bush family.
(d) Adam and Eve.

4. What is John's nervous condition?
(a) His nerve endings are outside his body.
(b) His mother beat him.
(c) He is afraid of taxis.
(d) He doesn't like the rain.

5. Who does the author claim he feels protective over in the Prologue?
(a) His mother.
(b) The characters.
(c) His agent.
(d) His wife.

Short Answer Questions

1. What causes John's wife to change the way she treats her husband in "Nervous Condition"?

2. Who does the man in "The Power of Belief" see in order to fix him?

3. At the end of "Soaring", what does the baby bird enjoy?

4. What are most of the bird couples' children able to do in "Soaring"?

5. What is the other animal in "Round in Circles" trying to get out of?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does baby bird worry his parents so much?

2. Why are Billy's parents afraid of him in the story "Projection"?

3. How does the doctor try to break the man's belief in "The Power of Belief"? What is the result of the attempt?

4. What is the common moral in "An American Holly" and "The Power of Belief"?

5. What does Faust argue is the best way for humans to find truth?

6. What does the line "the essential difficulty in trying to communicate with another is how to get past the interference of the resistance demons who inhabit that other" mean?

7. What do Faust and Oedipus debate in the Interlude?

8. How does the interlude end?

9. What is the significance of the man crossing the bridge in the story of the "The Bridge"?

10. What does Cassandra offer to the debate between Faust and Oedipus?

(see the answer keys)

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