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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 demand July do when she finds him after an obejctive has gone missing from her hut?

2. What do Daniel and July do when they see the chief in Section 8?

3. What does Bam think they should have brought to the chief?

4. What does the chief do that surprises the Smalls?

5. What do the children bring to help the small animals born in their hut?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. Explain how Maureen feels about her husband after living in the village for a time.

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

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

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

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

9. What does it imply that the chief can speak in English, but doesn’t at first?

10. Explain why Maureen thinks they need to leave in Section 9.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the character of Maureen at the beginning of the novel, and at the end of the novel. What are similarities? What are differences? How has she changed through the novel, and what caused her to change?

Essay Topic 2

The children in the novel regress throughout the book, and by the end, they are having difficulty even reading. Describe at least three moments in the book where one of the children “loses” their privileged behaviors and instead substitutes behaviors they are learning from the village children. What does this indicate about their ability to adapt, as opposed to their parents’ ability?

Essay Topic 3

The gun is a symbolic object in the novel. What does it symbolize to Bam and Maureen? To the villagers? To July? To Daniel? To the chief? In the end what happens to it, and how does this affect Bam? How does it affect Maureen?

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