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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 question does Lou ask his children?

2. What name does the gun-safety instructor keep calling Sedaris?

3. When Sedaris and his sister go to the gun range, what does he learn about for the first time?

4. In "Hurricane Season," what do Hugh and Sedaris discover about Sea Section's second-floor ceilings?

5. In "Father Time," what does Sedaris say is "unbearable" in children (26)?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What decision did Lou make about his will that upset Sedaris, and why was it so upsetting?

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

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

5. In "To Serbia with Love," what criticism does Sedaris level against the American tourists Patsy deals with in Paris?

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

7. In "Active Shooter," how does Lisa explain to the instructor and to Sedaris her desire to take a gun-safety course?

8. In "Hurricane Season," what type of art does Hugh hang in the rental house, and how does Sedaris characterize a recent tenant's reaction to this art?

9. In "Highfalutin," what two things does Amy do while she and Sedaris are shopping that he finds funny but also mortifying?

10. In "Active Shooter," what contrast does Sedaris see between the drills he recalls in his own elementary school and the ones being practiced today?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"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.

Essay Topic 2

You have already analyzed how comic detail functions in "Pearls." Now, apply a similar analysis to another one of the essays in Happy-Go-Lucky. Consider how the essay functions without these details. Think about whether the comic details in your chosen essay have similar or dissimilar tones and how their tone(s) might impact readers. Write an essay that explicates how humor functions in this essay: is it intended to entertain, persuade, inform, or to fulfill some combination of these purposes? How does it accomplish Sedaris's purposes, exactly? Support your assertions with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the essay.

Essay Topic 3

How does the title "Themes and Variations" suit both the explicit and implicit content of the essay? Write an essay in which you explore how "Themes and Variations" is both a summary of the essay's content related to Sedaris's interactions with his audience and a nod to the essay's ability to deliver both overt and covert themes. Use evidence from the text itself to support your interpretation of the essay's explicit and implicit content, and give clear reasoning to connect the essay's title to both kinds of content.

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