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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 think about himself when he thinks that Buck is not taking him seriously in Chapter Two?

2. Why does Will not let himself cry in Chapter One?

3. What scares Will at the end of Chapter Two?

4. What does Dani ask Will about his plan in Chapter Three?

5. What are The Rules in Chapter One?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Will compare his mother’s eczema to in Chapter One? And how does he turn this into wordplay talking about the grudges in the neighborhood?

2. What does Will think of when a man gets on the elevator in Chapter Two and starts looking at Will when Will is not looking?

3. After Will tells Buck what he is going to do, what does Buck tell Will about his plan to follow The Rules in Chapter Two? How does he compare Will to Shawn?

4. What does Will think of when Buck tells him his tail is showing in Chapter Two?

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

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

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

8. What is Will’s emotional and mental state when he sees Shawn is dead? What sensory details or figurative details from the novel tell us how he is thinking?

9. What does Will think Buck is thinking about him in Chapter Two? What does Will assert about himself to the reader in response?

10. What is Will’s plan with Shawn’s gun in Chapter One?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Long Way Down is intertextual with the story A Christmas Carol. Buck and other characters are decorated with gold chains, and smoke plays a role in each new scene, similar to A Christmas Carol. In A Christmas Carol, the main character is visited by a ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. In Long Way Down, what do the ghosts represent for Will? Are they of the past, present, and future? What does each character represent to him? Write an argument comparing Long Way Down's ghosts to a Christmas Carol's ghosts, and why Long Way Down shows its ghosts in this way.

Essay Topic 2

In the opening poems, Will insists that what happens is true (1-4). Think back to earlier discussions of your position as a reader. Why does Will want you to think the novel is true as he insists in the beginning? How does he reaffirm that these events are true throughout the novel? What is the relationship of the novel to its readers? Write an essay response pulling on textual examples for what the role of the reader is, how this can be observed through text choices, and why the reader is in this position to the text.

Essay Topic 3

Long Way Down uses and reinterprets several metaphors throughout the book. Choose one of the metaphors or figures of language used in Long Way Down (such a middle drawer). Find and write three instances of how the metaphor is used and changed or interpreted in new ways throughout the novel. What is the first definition of the word? What is the meaning of the word by the end of the novel? Finally, why is this metaphor used over and over? What is the purpose of the novel in using the same figurative language over and over?

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