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. In "Fresh-Caught Haddock," what objection does Sedaris raise to one of the protest chants?

2. In "Lucky-Go-Happy," why does the desk clerk at one hotel refuse to believe that the shirt Sedaris left behind belongs to him?

3. In "A Better Place," what does Sedaris envy about the group at the table across the room?

4. In "Lady Marmalade," what did Lou suggest Sedaris's childhood stomach pains were caused by?

5. In "A Better Place," what does Sedaris suggest would be true about Lou, if there were, in fact, an afterlife?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Lucky-Go-Happy," what does Sedaris start asking all of the teenagers at his readings, and what is his reaction to the responses he gets?

2. In "Pearls," what does Sedaris theorize are the two main causes of relationship failures?

3. In "Fresh-Caught Haddock," what does a Jewish acquaintance point out to Sedaris about his proposed solutions for Confederate monuments?

4. In "The Vacuum," what kind of language does Sedaris complain about people using to describe the pandemic, and what are some examples of this language?

5. In "Lucky-Go-Happy," what does Sedaris say about using Hugh as a test audience for his writing?

6. In "A Better Place," what is Sedaris's response to the idea that his father "did his best" (193)?

7. In "Pearls," how does the purchase of the second apartment illustrate one of Sedaris's main ideas about successful relationships?

8. What is the rhetorical function of opening "The Vacuum" with the description of the supermarket near Sedaris's apartment?

9. In "A Better Place," what is the rhetorical purpose of describing Lou's grave site in such detail?

10. In "The Vacuum," what activities does Sedaris describe filling his days with while he is waiting until he can go out and walk at night?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the meaning behind the anthology's title? Consider the content of the essay of the same name and how it relates to other essays in the collection. Consider how the title sums up a larger idea in this collection--earnestly or ironically. Also think about the reversed title in the essay's final collection. What is the point of reversing this title, and how does this choice add to your understanding of Sedaris's choice of Happy-Go-Lucky for the entire collection? Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about Sedaris's choice of title for this anthology of essays. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the collection.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,270 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample