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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 does Maureen think the blacks would say about July’s actions in saving the Smalls?

2. What phrases does Bam hear on the radio that attracts his attention in Section 8?

3. What does July’s mother pretend not to like in Section 6?

4. What does the chief want Bam to do to help him?

5. What is Bam’s reasoning for not owning a pistol?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Explain why the chief wants to learn to use a gun.

4. What does Martha wonder most about the white woman, when she lived in town with July?

5. Why do you think Maureen runs for the helicopter at the end of the novel, leaving her family behind?

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

7. Why does Maureen give a final belittling speech to July, and what does she say?

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

9. Describe Maureen’s point about the smell of her family.

10. Describe the scene where Bam lays face first in the bed. What happened, and what does this signify?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

July’s mother is a powerful female figure in his life. At the same time, however, she is being forced to do as July says. How does her role as a woman in the novel differ from the role of Maureen as a woman? Both are mothers and strong women. How do their differences show the differences in cultures, and how do their similarities show similarity in culture?

Essay Topic 2

Although Maureen and Bam claim to be against the life of privileged whites, their children’s behaviors betray this concept. Choose one scene in which the behavior of the children leads one to believe they are, indeed, over privileged, and that they don’t share their parents’ views of equality for blacks.

Essay Topic 3

The photograph of Maureen and Lydia is a focal point for Maureen in the novel. Explain what that photograph would mean in apartheid South Africa. Why was this so important for Maureen as an adult? What did the photograph imply, to her, as she noted her ignorance? Do you think she has changed? How?

(see the answer keys)

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