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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What image does the narrator say Helen presents to the audience at the Gilded Cage?
(a) A life hard-lived.
(b) Age and wisdom.
(c) Womanly disaster.
(d) A monument to human endurance.

2. What day of the year does Ironweed start on?
(a) All Saints’ Day.
(b) Day of the Dead.
(c) Halloween.
(d) All Souls’ Day.

3. What does the narrator say about the brotherhood that joins Francis and Rudy?
(a) They are the founding members.
(b) It has been passed down since the beginning of time.
(c) It has never existed.
(d) It comes into being whenever Francis and Rudy drink together.

4. How did Francis kill Dick Doolan?
(a) Smashed his skull against a bridge abutment.
(b) Suffocated him in a stream.
(c) Broke his head with a stone.
(d) Stabbed him with a fork.

5. What is the essence of Francis’ response when Rudy asks where they are going?
(a) They are performing an important and mysterious errand.
(b) They are going into hiding.
(c) They are believers, and fate will take them where it wants.
(d) They are bums, and don’t have anywhere to go.

6. Where is Clara when Francis and Helen arrive at Jack’s flat?
(a) In the bath.
(b) On the floor.
(c) On a chamber pot.
(d) In bed.

7. In the epigraph, what does Dante leave behind by hoisting sail with his wit?
(a) His beautiful homeland.
(b) His fair wife.
(c) His darling children.
(d) A sea so cruel.

8. How long have Francis and Helen known each other?
(a) Twenty-two years.
(b) Six months.
(c) Six years.
(d) Nine years.

9. How does the narrator characterize Francis’ mother’s reaction to his arrival in the cemetery?
(a) Delighted.
(b) Relieved.
(c) Nervous.
(d) Furious.

10. What brotherhood does the narrator say Francis and Rudy have between them?
(a) Brotherhood of bums.
(b) Brotherhood of the ghosts.
(c) Brotherhood of the optimists.
(d) Brotherhood of the desolate.

11. What does Gerald hope Francis will do after making this visit?
(a) Stop trying to die.
(b) Make new babies.
(c) Kill himself.
(d) Die in peace.

12. What does Francis say is ‘standard survival currency everywhere’?
(a) Money.
(b) Fornication.
(c) Violence.
(d) Buddies.

13. How does the narrator say Daddy Big Dugan died?
(a) Inhaling his vomit.
(b) Jumped off a bridge.
(c) Old age.
(d) Stabbing.

14. What does the narrator say came from Rowdy Dick Doolan’s head when Francis saw him in a vision?
(a) A glow.
(b) Weeds.
(c) Birds.
(d) Blood.

15. Which of the seven deadly sins prompts Francis to get defensive?
(a) Lust.
(b) Envy.
(c) Cowardice.
(d) Greed.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Francis tell the intern in Indiana his fingertip was?

2. How does the narrator characterize Gerald’s eternal repose?

3. When did the confrontation with the scabs take place?

4. What does Helen say she was doing while Sandra was dying?

5. What does Rudy say is Sandra’s last name?

(see the answer keys)

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