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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. How long does Seth say Bynum has been at the rooming house?

2. What does Mattie say about moving in to the boardinghouse?

3. How does Bynum say that Seth looks?

4. Why does Seth say jokingly that he married Bertha?

5. What does Bynum caution Jeremy that he's doing to Mattie, asking her to move in so soon?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Bertha advise Mattie about Bynum?

2. What does Seth say to Loomis, when Loomis first enters in Act 2, Scene 2?

3. What warning does Bynum give Mattie Campbell?

4. What act does Loomis take to free himself and start anew?

5. What does Bynum describe his father doing that made a fuss?

6. Explain the metaphor that Bynum tells to Jeremy to teach him about relationships.

7. What does Bertha say is the worst use of a man?

8. What reason does Bynum give for why he doesn't think Herald Loomis is a gambler?

9. What does Loomis say that the wave in his vision washed up?

10. What does Bynum say he sees about Loomis?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Disuss the losing of others in the play.

1) Why do characters need each other and find themselves bound together in the play?

2) Why do characters, such as Jack and Martha, leave others in the play? What is the significance to the leaver, and what is the significance to the one who is left?

3) Once a person in the play has lost another, is it possible to reclaim that lost person? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Loomis's vision is an important element in the play. Discuss the meaning and significance of this vision.

1) What do the bones walking on water signify? Why do they sink? Why are they washed to shore?

2) Why is Loomis one of the sets of bones that washes to shore? Why can't he rise up and walk away like the other people?

3) What does the road signify in the vision? Why do the washed-up people walk down the road in different directions?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss religion in the play.

1) What is the significance of the washing in blood that appears both in Bynum's vision and in the end of the play? What religious significance does it have?

2) Compare the Christian religion of the characters to Bynum's spiritualism. What parallels do they have? How are they different? Where does each arise from?

3) Why does Loomis rail against religion? What significance is there to the fact that Martha followed her church away from Loomis?

(see the answer keys)

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