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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 the bag woman insisting to Starbuck?

2. While unpacking at the Arapahoe, what does Starbuck wonder?

3. What does the crowd watching the reunion encourage Starbuck to do?

4. What is the harp salesman calculating doing as he talks to Starbuck?

5. Starbuck finds Mary Kathleen in a _______.

Short Essay Questions

1. Does Clewes accept Starbuck's apology? What is his response?

2. Why should Starbuck have gone to the police in Chapter 11?

3. How does Leen mistake Starbuck for Mrs. Graham?

4. Why does Starbuck face more jail time after Mary Kathleen's death?

5. How is Vonnegut invoking the senses of Starbuck's experience in his writing?

6. What does Mary Kathleen personify? What is Vonnegut saying?

7. Why doesn't Mary Kathleen remember the bad things of Starbuck's life?

8. What is ironic about Mary Kathleen's death?

9. Were Mary Kathleen's dying wishes granted? How so?

10. As far as Starbuck knows, why are he and the other "saints" at Leen's apartment?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Starbuck discusses he has only loved four women in his life. Those women are Sarah, Mary Kathleen, Ruth, and his mother. Discuss how Starbuck loves. What is his impact on those people, and what is their influence over him?

Essay Topic 2

Vonnegut discusses a fan letter in the prologue, which says "love may fail, but courtesy will prevail." Discuss how this works as a theme in the book and its angle on humanity and society in "Jailbird."

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how "The Sermon on the Mount" applies to "Jailbird."

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