View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Bunny have to show Aminata when she shows up for lunch?

2. While the Senator is talking with Eliot in his apartment, what occurs?

3. What is one of Eliot's favorite Kilgore Trout books dealing with ingratitude?

4. Upon getting home, why does Fred give up his first thought of suicide?

5. What solution does Eliot's father present for Eliot's current problem?

Short Essay Questions

1. During his father's visit, Eliot takes a call from someone in the town. What do the two of them discuss while his father is there listening?

2. How has Eliot prepared for his trip to see Sylvia in Indianapolis? What is his night like before leaving for the trip?

3. How do the Buntlines have a servant, Selena, living in their home? How does Selena feel about living with the Buntlines?

4. Kilgore Trout puts his "spin" on Eliot's life in Rosewater. How does he explain Eliot's work for the people of Rosewater?

5. When Fred comes home, what happens that makes him think of suicide? What keeps him from killing himself?

6. Who is Harry Pena, and what are his different jobs? How does he behave toward Fred? What information is revealed about Fred in their meeting?

7. Fred and Caroline Rosewater live in Pisquontuit, Rhode Island. Describe the town and the people in it.

8. While he is looking at the books in the news store with Lila, Fred comes across a book that interests him. What is the book and what is it about?

9. Amid one person after another coming up to him and saying goodbye and good luck, all people he seems not to know, Eliot goes to the magazine rack and chooses something to read on his trip to Indianapolis. What does he choose, and what is it about?

10. In the end, Eliot outsmarts Mushari and others who think he is idealistic and insane. How does he do this?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Eliot's analogy of the Money River. How does his analogy compare to society? Can anyone get ahead if there is indeed a Money River?

Essay Topic 2

In her letter to Daddy Parrot, Selena explains to him the people with whom she lives, the Buntlines. At the end of her letter, she says perhaps she is too dumb to understand what is wonderful about Pisquontuit. She says to him "maybe this is a case of pearls before swine, but I really don't see how." What does she mean by this? Why is this saying part of the title of the novel?

Essay Topic 3

One theme in literature is the relationship between good and evil and how it affects the characters in the novel. Discuss the powers of good and evil in this novel in both plot and character development.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,389 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample