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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 story does Joy recount to explain why his hands are crushed?

2. For what reason does Jim tell Harry that he was jailed for a vagrancy charge?

3. Who approaches Jim and Mac saying that the committee wants a report?

4. What does Mac claim will do Jim no good without on-the-scene training and experience?

5. What as Mac sent away for the previous night that he expects the next morning?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 2, Jim reminisces about mysterious happenings during his childhood; how did this, according to Jim, affect his mother?

2. How does Mac use the analogy of running new hunting dogs with old timers with Jim?

3. Why does Al use his business and his father's land to explain why he does not want to join the cause?

4. How does Mac convince Anderson to let them use his land as a camping ground for the strikers?

5. Why does Mac want to make sure that Doc Burton has no legal or civil problems?

6. Why is Dakin afraid of being involved in the strike?

7. Why is field work so dangerous, according to Mac?

8. What is the specific situation that occurred that Mac recounts as the reason for why Joy is "screwy."

9. In Chapter 5, what does Old Dan predict happening with the group of strikers in Torgas Valley? What does he mean by "water heaving before the boil"?

10. In Chapter 4, how is Mac's claim that the man who tries to scare you is usually scared of you an analogy to the strike?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Jim directs the sacrifice of the cows in Chapter 13. How does this sacrifice and the total transformation of the men into group man reinforce one another? Why and how does the sacrifice reinforce group man within the narrative? How has the tone among the men and within the camp transformed into something different at this point? Cite specific examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Throughout "In Dubious Battle," chapters are ended with either sounds or images that are significant to foreshadowing what will come. Pick one sound or image from one of the chapters and discuss at length how and why that image or sound is significant to the narrative. How does it end the chapter? What is the sound or image's context? Why that sound or image? How does the sound or image foreshadow the ensuing chapters? Use specific information from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Mac claims several times that blood spillage is good for the cause. Is he a sympathetic or unsympathetic character because of this frame of thinking? Why or why not? Support your answer with specific information from the text.

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