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. What character does Young Man 7 ridicule Toby for comparing his protagonist to?

2. Who is Harvey Milk?

3. On page 85, what specific expression does the text cite as having been appropriated from drag and ball culture?

4. What does Adam seem to feel about Eric and Toby's breakup?

5. Where is the house where Toby has been staying when he calls Eric in Act One, Scene One?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is ironic about Jason 2's question to Walter about whether Walter worries about what will happen if Henry dies first?

2. Why is the night of November 8, 2016 thematically significant?

3. What is the main point of the poem fragment "Hidden" that serves as the book's epigraph?

4. What medication is Tristan taking, and why is it brought up in the context of positive changes for the gay community?

5. What is the symbolic significance of Adam giving Toby back his umbrella?

6. How do Charles and Paul's attitudes in the hallway after Eric's brunch foreshadow their actions at the end of Act Two?

7. Why does Young Man 1 turn to Morgan for help in the play's prologue?

8. Which character does Young Man 10 become in Act One, and how does this make sense with his lines in the Prologue?

9. Who is Tom Durrell, and how does he become significant in the Act Three, Scene One conversation between Toby and Adam?

10. When the play returns to Eric in Act Three, Scene Two, what are the various reasons that Eric is feeling bereft and alone?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How do the ghostly figures at the farmhouse relate to the play's messages about community, storytelling, and inheritance? How do the ghosts' identities matter--their membership in community, their generation, and the manner of their deaths? How does their location matter? Why do they appear to Eric, and why all together? What do Eric's actions relative to these men and their stories signify? Write an essay that analyzes how the ghostly figures support the play's ideas about the importance of community and storytelling and that shows how these ideas relate to the play's conception of "inheritance." Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 2

Now that you have finished the play, you have seen the Young Men both take part in and comment on the play's action in a variety of ways. What does it mean that they are both characters and narrators in this play? What does it mean that many of them play several different characters? Which play only one character, and what is the significance of this? Why are they initially identified as "Young Men" rather than "Chorus" or some other term? Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about the significance of the Young Men to the play's overall meaning. Defend your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the play. If you use outside sources, be sure to cite these in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

How much of present-day Henry's character is really attributable to Walter's choice to bring Peter to the farmhouse, and how much is simply an innate part of who Henry has always been? Consider Henry's backstory before he met Walter--his early life, his marriage, his career, and so on. What does this part of his life demonstrate about his character? Why would he suddenly make such a dramatic change in his life based on meeting Walter? What does he seem to have loved about Walter at this stage in his life? What does Henry say changed about him during the AIDS epidemic, and when Walter chose to keep Peter at the farmhouse? Do you think that most people would have changed in the way Henry changed? What commentary of Henry's about Leo, charity, politics, and responsibility in general sheds light on his personality and beliefs? Do these seem to have changed since that pivotal moment at the farmhouse, or are these aspects of Henry consistent throughout his life? Write an essay in which you analyze the characterization of Henry, taking and defending a clear position about how important Walter's decision to keep Peter at the farmhouse really was--or was not--in forming the man that Henry Wilcox became. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,344 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample