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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 is the name of Tonseten's wife?

2. What is Tonseten's first name?

3. What does Beret trip over as she leaves the house after a fight with Per Hansa, at the end of Book 1, Chapter 4?

4. Which of the following do the men bring back from their trip to town for Per Hansa?

5. Who helps Per Hansa clean the sick Indian's injury?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the Hansa family's caravan.

2. Who has a problem with Per Hansa's house? Why? What does this character do when Per Hansa ignores his advice?

3. What is the Hansa family doing as the novel opens? Why?

4. How do the men convince the Solum boys to stay in Spring Creek for the winter?

5. Why does Per Hansa take a trip to the Sioux River? What does he bring back with him?

6. How does Beret find out about the name stakes that Per Hansa removes? What is her opinion of the event?

7. Why do the Solum boys want to travel back East for the winter? What do they ask of Per Hansa and what is his reaction?

8. Who goes to look for the cattle? What happens when this character returns?

9. How does Beret change in the last chapter of the book?

10. What happens to the rest of the party that the Hansa family was traveling with?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Giants in the Earth is full of lush description and vivid imagery. Discuss this imagery, using several examples from the book. Where and how does the author use devices such as personification, simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, etc.? How do they add to the novel? What impact do they have on the reader?

Essay Topic 2

The theme or struggle of man versus man is also present in the novel usually involving the men in the settlement versus men outside the settlement, but there are also struggles within the settlement as well. Discuss the struggles within the novel. How do the men deal with these struggles and how do they get past them? What lessons are learned through these struggles and how do they affect the settlement? Explain using examples.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the style of the novel. Include in your discussion the importance of the title of the chapters, the pacing of the novel, the way the themes are used, and other style elements involved. Provide examples of the author's style and discuss whether the style is effective in this type of novel.

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