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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. How many days go by before Peter gets a visitor?

2. Who carries the brother home in The Rockpile?

3. What did Eric's father tell Jamie to quit doing in Eric's memory?

4. In The Man Child, what does Eric notice changes after Eric's mother returns home from the hospital?

5. What does Gabriel's wife instruct John to pick up amidst Gabriel's rage?

Short Essay Questions

1. In The Outing, what does the church do every 4th of July and why?

2. Describe how Peter behaves at the restaurant with Ida in Previous Condition.

3. Who is Sylvia?

4. Describe who Jamie is.

5. Why does Gabriel turn his anger from Roy to John?

6. Describe what the children are told will happen if they play on the rockpile in The Rockpile.

7. What does Roy tell John he's going to do one day?

8. What does Peter realize in Harlem?

9. What is Eric doing when Jamie comes up to him at the end of The Man Child?

10. Why is Peter nervous?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the element of guilt in Sonny's Blues in the teacher, Sonny's friend, and the teacher's dad. What is significant about Sonny's lack of visible guilt?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze and discuss how Peter's skin color is the previous condition in the story, Previous Condition.

Essay Topic 3

Analyze and explain what Ruth from Come Out the Wilderness realizes about her relationships with the white men she has dated and why they all fail.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 590 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample