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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. What did Mick want to do when she was standing with her arms spread out like wings?

2. In Part 2, Chapter 5, what does Spareribs bring with him to the Kelly house?

3. Why did Mick say she wore shorts?

4. What happens to Biff Brannon on October 8?

5. While outside on the porch with his friend, Spareribs, what does Bugger do to Baby?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Blount want even more than a job?

2. Where does Antonapoulos's cousin, Charles Parker, take him after he gets into more trouble?

3. What changed about Biff Brannon's feelings for Mick?

4. Why does Jake Blount bring a black man into the restaurant with him when he knew blacks cannot eat in the same place as white people?

5. What bothered Doctor Copeland when he attended the family reunion?

6. What had not changed about Mick Kelly on the evening of August 21, 1939?

7. What caused the riot at the Sunny Dixie Show?

8. What happens when Jake Blount finally meets, Simms, the man who wrote the message on the wall?

9. In what ways do Portia and her father differ in their reaction to Willie's punishment in prison and the loss of his feet?

10. Why is Jake Blount leaving town?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate Jake Blount's statement, "The old cow grazes all over--in the south, the west, the north, and the east. But she's milked in just one place." What did he mean by this analogy?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the kind of relationship Mick Kelly has with her family, especially her mother. Why doesn't Mick confide in her parents about her dreams? What happened to the close relationship she once had with her older brother? Why does Mick seem closest to her younger brothers? At one point in the novel Mick keeps asking her brother Bubber/George if he loves her. Why was it so important to her that he love her not just because she was his sister?

Essay Topic 3

What is the difference between this Southern town and Northern towns of equal size? Does the location of the story make a difference in this story? Why? How would the story change if it took place in a different location? What would be lost from the story?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 903 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample