View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the dietician offer Christmas as a bribe?

2. At whose home does Lena spend the night?

3. What is Lena's hometown?

4. Where is Christmas headed with his three friends?

5. Who has been living in the cabin on the Burden property?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What revelations does Brown share when he shows up in town after the murder?

3. What are the details of the murder as told by Byron in this chapter?

4. What drives Lena to keep moving on her quest?

5. Why has Lena left her home in Alabama?

6. The author uses the literary technique of a flashback at this point in the book. What purpose does this serve?

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

8. How does the Hightower marriage eventually end?

9. Two men give Lena a ride in their wagon but one of them is especially concerned about what people might say. What misgivings do the men have about the situation?

10. Why does Christmas know that something is going to happen to him on this night?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Faulkner opens the novel with the story of Lena and her undeterred faith that she will find the father of her unborn child. What does Lena symbolize in the novel? Why does Faulkner use her character to establish the story?

Essay Topic 2

Why does Christmas have trouble accepting kindnesses, especially from women? What role, if any, do the dietitician, Mrs. McEachern and Miss Burden play in his inability to receive kindness?

Essay Topic 3

Why do you think Hightower is really forced to resign from his minister position? Was it because his wife disgraced him with improper behavior? Or is there some hidden story related to rumors of his homosexuality? Explain your perspective.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 729 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample