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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 Will know is in Shawn’s corner-store bag in Chapter One?

2. What does Buck do for Will when Will is struggling with the gun in Chapter Two?

3. What does Dani ask Will when she first gets on the elevator in Chapter Three?

4. What does Buck ask Will about the gun in Chapter Two that Will has not thought about?

5. What does Buck do to diffuse the situation between Will and Dani in Chapter Three?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens on the day of the picture that Dani shows to Will in Chapter Three?

2. Who gets on the elevator in Chapter Three? How do Will and the new person first interact?

3. How does Shawn come to teach Will The Rules as explained in Chapter Three? What does Will feel after he is taught the Rules?

4. Who does Will think has killed Shawn in Chapter One? Why does Will think this?

5. What is the picture of at the beginning of Chapter One? What does this image illustrate for the reader?

6. In Chapter Two, how is the man who gets onto the elevator with Will described? How does Will find out he is Buck?

7. As told in Chapter Two, what does “L” mean to Shawn and Will? What is the game they used to play on the elevator?

8. What does Will say he usually does when bad things happen? Why can he not do this on the day that Shawn dies? Why does he think the moon is “lucky”?

9. What does Dani ask Will when he tells her his plan in Chapter Three? How does he respond?

10. Why does Will look to Buck for help in Chapter Three? What does Buck do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Generational patterns are repeated in Long Way Down. Characters are mirrors of one another. Literary devices using mirroring, such as a mise en abyme and repetition are used. At the end Chapter Six, after Frick is done speaking, Will looks into the elevator and sees only himself. What do you make of this mirroring on a narrative and stylistic level? What does it say about the content of the novel and the novel's eventual message? Write an argument pulling from at least two of the examples above in addition to two other examples from the novel of your choosing.

Essay Topic 2

The third of The Rules is to enact revenge on the person who kills someone close to you. Does the novel support the idea of revenge? What does it show revenge does? Does it support the actions of Rule Number Three? What does the novel actually show about the theme of revenge? Write a response with at least three textual examples supporting your main claim.

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast how Pop feels and acts after shooting Ghee to how Will feels and acts after Dani dies. What similarities exist between the two scenes? What is the novel saying about death by having these similarities? What themes is the novel trying to evoke with these two passages? Write a claim about the purpose of comparing the theme, and draw on at least two other sections in the novel to support your claim.

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