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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 position did Gil play on the football team?

2. On their way out of town, what happened to Gil and Sully?

3. What was Chimley sitting on while he was fishing?

4. Why did Cherry not like the sight of an empty cane field?

5. What are the tractor's getting closer and closer to?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Johnny Paul talking about when he talked to Mapes about what he couldn't see?

2. What was the goal of Reverend Jameson?

3. How did each man claim responsibility for the murder of Beau?

4. What did it mean when they saw dust on the road? What was this a symbol of?

5. What was the significance of the argument between Mat and his wife?

6. What was the significance of empty number five shells?

7. Why did Candy want more men and more shotguns at Mathu's house?

8. What was the nature of the relationship between Candy and Lou?

9. Why did Mapes hit the men and what did it mean? When everybody lined up to be hit by Mapes, what happened?

10. Why was Gil torn between love for his family and sadness over their past actions?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Light-skinned blacks vs. dark-skinned blacks. Explain what is happening in this story between the people who are light-skinned and the people who are dark-skinned. How did these prejudices begin?

Essay Topic 2

Relationships between white and black in this town in the Deep South. Explain the relationships between the black and white people in this town. Why didn't they change after slavery and after civil rights? Why is this town so far behind the times?

Essay Topic 3

How did a different person narrating each chapter change the story? What would have been different if Lou Dimes had narrated all the chapters? Or Chimley. Or Candy. Or Clatoo?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 644 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample