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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 Mr. McEachern want Christmas to do?

2. Who is Lena's brother?

3. What is Christmas' plan?

4. What does Christmas do with the waitress?

5. Where does Lena go the next morning?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Christmas think that his killing McEachern will make him seem heroic in Bobbie's eyes?

2. What is the irony of McEachern beating Christmas for not memorizing his catechism lesson?

3. What does the dietician's pink toothpaste symbolize for Christmas?

4. Why does Byron regret telling Lena that the man in town named Joe Brown is the man she knows as Lucas Burch?

5. Why do the townspeople believe that the former Reverend Hightower's wife had disgraced him?

6. Why does Christmas sleep in the stables that night?

7. Joe leaves the whorehouse and enters "the street which was to run for fifteen years." What is the significance of this statement?

8. Why is Christmas attracted to Bobbie?

9. How do the other men at the planing mill learn more about Christmas' background?

10. Why does Christmas lose control when he sees Bobbie with another man?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Faulkner uses the literary technique of flashback in this novel. Note the flashback instances and describe them briefly. What is the purpose of using this technique? What do they provide the reader? What would the reader not know about this story if the flashbacks were not included?

Essay Topic 2

Explain Faulkner's use of symbolism and imagery in the book as related to the topic of light. What does the light in August represent? Which characters are especially affected by this light and what does it mean to them?

Essay Topic 3

Explain the mixed feelings Christmas must have when he trades the woman for the shoes of the black man and can feel his black blood manifesting itself in the physical world.

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This section contains 688 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample