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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 is Francis guilty about, when he talks to Gerald?

2. Where does Helen sleep after she and Francis leave Jack and Clara’s?

3. What does Daddy Big say Francis’ son Billy did for him?

4. What does Rudy tell Francis the doctor diagnosed him with?

5. What makes it possible for Francis and Rudy to eat at the Mission?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What state is Sandra in when Francis, Helen and Rudy and Pee Wee return from the Gilded Cage?

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

5. How did Francis end up with a job shoveling dirt at the cemetery?

6. Describe the environment of the Gilded Cage.

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

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

9. 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?

10. What kinship does Francis have with the Phelan brothers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a character sketch of the author based on his style and content. What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

Essay Topic 2

Would you recommend Ironweed? For what purposes would you recommend Ironweed, and what kinds of readers would you recommend it for? What other book would you recommend that would cover the same material or tell the same story in a different way?

Essay Topic 3

The American novel is typically centered on a character who believes in a fundamental innocence, and goes into the world to have experiences and find him or herself—but Ironweed is centered on Francis’ guilt over any number of things. How does Ironweed fit in the American canon?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 937 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample