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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 Phelan’s father’s reaction to Francis’ arrival?

2. How does Francis characterize himself and Rudy?

3. Who does Francis see enter the bathroom with him in Chapter 3?

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

5. What does the narrator say was Francis’ relationship with prayer?

Short Essay Questions

1. What expression does Francis use when something is finally and absolutely concluded?

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

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

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

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

6. What price does Helen pay for sleeping in Finny’s car?

7. What does Francis say is the curve of Clara’s life?

8. How did Francis come to see Aldo Campione die?

9. How did Francis end up killing Harold Allen?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Debate the proposition that Francis has redeemed his flight from home and family by turning flight into a philosophy.

Essay Topic 2

How would Ironweed be different if it were told from a woman’s point of view? How would Annie, or Helen or Clara or Sandra change the nature of the book, and reveal the world of bums that Francis Phelan lives in?

Essay Topic 3

Use this book as a meditation on the value of a five-star rating system. Is a five-star system sufficient to a book like this? Would you need to have sub-topics for the rating system, for plot, characterization, language, etc? What other sub-topics would you need? What value or importance gets lost in a five-star scale? Design a scale that would be better for this book.

(see the answer keys)

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