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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 are the chief’s final words to the Smalls in Section 8?

2. What do even the children know about the secret of the gun?

3. What does Maureen not realize she is helping the women collect in Section 9?

4. What is missing from the hut when the Smalls return home?

5. What greeting does Daniel give the man at the gathering place?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Bam try to explain about why the chief shouldn’t kill his own people?

2. What does Bam mean when he says July is “shrewdy”?

3. What does the author mean when she says Victor is angry “with a white man’s anger, too big for him”?

4. Describe the shared moment of mockery between Martha and Maureen.

5. What is missing when the Smalls arrive back at the hut in Section 9, and what does this likely mean for the family?

6. Explain why Maureen drowns the kittens and what this implies about her?

7. Where has Daniel gone in Section 10, and what does this mean for Maureen and her family?

8. Explain how Bam now feels about his wife by Section 7.

9. Describe the gumba-gumba, and the resulting party atmosphere.

10. Describe what Bam’s feeding of the children shows, in terms of his role in the household, compared to his previous life?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain, in detail, why July resents the Smalls, despite their employment of him for so many years. Be sure to include information and details as explained by July in the book.

Essay Topic 2

Maureen at one point in the novel mentions being afraid of July, not in a physical sense, but in the sense that she realizes her “consideration” for him became “humiliation” to him. What does this mean? How did Maureen’s treatment of him humiliate him now that they are in his world? What does this say about the whole of Maureen’s life previously? Why does this frighten her?

Essay Topic 3

One theme of the novel is that of the complete role reversal between whites and blacks in the book, as shown through both the riots in town and the relationship between Maureen and July. Explain, in detail, this role reversal. Why does it happen, what is the result, and how does this change the world as July and Maureen know it?

(see the answer keys)

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