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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Francis characterize Sandra’s life?
(a) It was redeemed as she died.
(b) It was squandered.
(c) It wasn’t human any more.
(d) It had become angelic.

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

3. How familiar does Francis say trolleys are to him?
(a) He himself built the trolley he and Rudy ride.
(b) He never rides them.
(c) They are as familiar as his father’s face.
(d) He used to know them well, but has forgotten.

4. Where does Rudy say Sandra came from?
(a) Alaska.
(b) New Jersey.
(c) California.
(d) Tennessee.

5. What accusation does the ghost of the first man Francis killed accuse Francis of?
(a) Murdering his baby.
(b) Insanity.
(c) Cowardice.
(d) Selfishness.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How does Francis characterize Helen in bed?

3. How does Francis say he behaves when he is drunk?

4. What is Francis guilty about, when he talks to Gerald?

5. What does Francis say about anything that “draws blood or breaks heads”?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the importance of Halloween in the book’s setting?

2. Describe Francis’ relationship with his mother.

3. Describe the presence of the dead in Francis’ present day experience, after shoveling dirt at the cemetery.

4. What misfortune besets Helen after she returns to the Mission with Francis and Rudy?

5. Where did Francis Phelan’s family lie in the pecking order of the cemetery?

6. Describe the environment of the Gilded Cage.

7. When Helen says that she won’t go back to Finny’s car, she says that she might call her people. What is the irony in this?

8. What is Reverend Chester’s policy about drunks, and what effect does it have?

9. How does the narrator describe Gerald’s body in the grave?

10. What effect is created by the author’s sophisticated vocabulary?

(see the answer keys)

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