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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 the old man holler out while waiting on the train to Jefferson?

2. Where does Christmas get a job?

3. Who moves into the cabin with Christmas?

4. Instead of leaving town like the sheriff thinks he will do, what does Byron do that night?

5. What are the townspeople eager for over Miss Burden's death?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the symbolism of the odor in Hightower's house?

2. What does Hightower mean when he says the fading afternoon light is audible?

3. As Christmas runs to avoid the law, he stops at a cabin and trades shoes with a Negro woman. What is the significance of the traded shoes?

4. How does Faulkner show that women are more realistic and more forgiving in this chapter?

5. New life has significance in more than one way in this chapter. Explain.

6. Why does Percy Grimm castrate Christmas while he is still alive?

7. Why does Byron force an encounter with Brown after Brown flees from Lena in the cabin?

8. Explain the irony in Miss Burden's nearly nymphomaniac behavior?

9. Why does Christmas refuse to marry Miss Burden and raise a family?

10. Explain this statement made by Christmas: "Whether they are seventeen or fortyseven, when they finally come to surrender completely, it's going to be in words."

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Faulkner compares Joe Christmas to Jesus Christ which is a popular literary technique in Faulkner's time. Identify the ways in which Christmas and Christ have similarities. Do you think this is blasphemous? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

The town of Jefferson seems to be filled with misfits. This is not uncommon in the Southern Gothic style of literature which Faulkner writes. Why do you think there are so many unusual or eccentric characters? Could the story be told with more average characters or is it necessary to populate the town with eccentrics? Explain in context with other Southern Gothic literature with which you may be familiar.

Essay Topic 3

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?

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