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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 do Francis and the others do with Sandra?

2. What does Francis say to Rudy when Rudy says that he ain’t dead yet?

3. What does Francis borrow of Jack’s?

4. How does Francis characterize Sandra’s life?

5. The narrator says that Francis was “staunchly resolute” in the face of what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the message of the song Helen sings to Francis?

2. How did Francis’ father die?

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

4. What does Francis’ conversation with Rudy tell us about his relationship with Helen?

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

6. Describe Francis’ relationship with his mother.

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

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

9. Describe Francis’ baseball career.

10. What is Rowdy Dick Doolan’s role in Francis’ story?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What role does Francis’ baseball career play in Ironweed? Is the sport part of his bum lifestyle, or was it a period when he was something other than a bum? How does the novel reconcile Francis’ present life with the life he lived as a ball player?

Essay Topic 2

The ending of the novel is ambiguous, but there are clues throughout the novel about whether it might be read optimistically or pessimistically. What indications does Kennedy give the reader about what to make of the ending? What conclusion do you come to about the conclusion?

Essay Topic 3

Who is the audience for Ironweed? What is the ideal reader for Ironweed likely to think about the book’s main topics? How does this book try to affect the reader? What is it trying to teach him or her, or get him or her to do?

(see the answer keys)

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