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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. In "Unbuttoned," what does Sedaris notice on the floor of his father's house?

2. In "Father Time," what does Sedaris say was the hardest part of Lou's hospitalization for the siblings?

3. In "Highfalutin," who are Lex and Germalina?

4. In "Bruised," what word does Sedaris keep repeating as he tries to fend off Olivier's advances?

5. In "A Speech to the Graduates," what reason does Sedaris offer for why the graduates should follow his advice?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the condition of Lou's house when the Sedaris siblings go to start clearing it out In "Unbuttoned."

2. In "Highfalutin," how does Sedaris say his adult experience in front of cameras reflects his role in the childhood game he played with Amy?

3. In "Themes and Variations," what kinds of people does Sedaris resist giving money to?

4. In "Active Shooter," how is Lisa's concern about what she saw at Starbucks used as the basis for a joke later in the essay?

5. In "To Serbia with Love," how does Sedaris describe the flea markets that he and Patsy visit in Eastern Europe?

6. In "Bruised," what anecdote does Sedaris tell about a neighbor woman he knew when he was a child?

7. In "Bruised," how does Sedaris feel his identity is flattened by his lack of French language skills?

8. In "Hurricane Season," how does the example of the neighbor's "shocking" outdoor shower undermine the point Sedaris has just made about renters?

9. In "Father Time," how does Sedaris contrast his attentiveness to his father with that of his siblings?

10. In "To Serbia with Love," what does Milos say was better about Yugoslavia under Tito than today's Serbia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sedaris has given several interviews offering advice about how to write humorous essays. Go online and find one of the articles where he offers such advice. Then, write an essay in which you summarize the advice he gives and apply it to one of the essays in this collection (any essay except "Smile, Beautiful"). Do all of the pieces of advice seem to apply to your chosen essay? Which ones are deployed most effectively in this essay? Why are they so effective? Consider questions like these as you explicate the humor in the essay and compare it to the advice Sedaris gives in the article you have chosen. Offer both quoted and paraphrased evidence from both the article and the essay in support of your observations, and cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

How does the symbol of the grandfather clock unify the essay "Father Time"? How do both ideas it contains--the idea of fatherhood and the idea of time--run through the essay? How does the clock serve to unify both of these ideas into a single message? Write an essay in which you analyze the clock as a symbol. Use textual evidence to defend your idea of its symbolic significance, and then show how this symbolic significance is developed throughout the remainder of the essay. Be sure to focus attention on the relationship between the two main ideas that this clock introduces--do not simply treat them as two separate topics.

Essay Topic 3

"Unbuttoned" is just one of the essays in Happy-Go-Lucky that focuses attention on how Sedaris's relationship with his father shaped him. Consider the various essays in the collection that discuss Sedaris's relationship with his father and what they convey about the complexity of that relationship. What are the claims that Sedaris seems to be making about his father? How do the differing reactions of his siblings support or undermine his claims? How might differing expectations about the presentation of masculinity be a factor in Sedaris's relationship with his father? How do the events in "Unbuttoned" feel like an important shift in Sedaris's relationship with Lou? Do his essays that were written after this time period reflect that a real change has taken place? Write an essay that takes and defends a position about the impact on David Sedaris of being raised by Lou Sedaris and then watching this man decline into old age and death. Support your claims with evidence from throughout the text.

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