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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. Where does Will put Shawn’s gun in Chapter One?

2. What does the girl on the elevator show Will in Chapter Three?

3. What does Buck tell Will about giving the gun to Shawn in Chapter Two?

4. What does Will say one has to do to make it big in basketball in Chapter One?

5. Why is Will surprised that the girl can see the smoke in the elevator in Chapter Three?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

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. Why does Will tell Dani he needs the gun in Chapter Three? Why does Will explain The Rules to Dani?

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

6. What is the metaphor Will describes in Chapter Three about God displaying his children?

7. What does Will think of when the girl in the elevator shows him the picture from her wallet in Chapter Three? Who is in the photo?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the character of Will Holloman to Mikey Holloman. How are these characters similar or different to one another? How are their actions related? How are their words related to one another? Why does the novel set these two characters up as foils of one another? What does their mirroring suggest about the novel's structure, and eventual ending? Write a response with at least four textual examples.

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

In Chapter One, Will takes Shawn’s gun and alludes to a little brother holding his big brother’s hands, in a sense, walking in his footsteps. In Chapter Five, Mikey Holloman tells his story of going to shoot his older brother’s killer in words and actions similar to Will’s choosing to avenge Shawn. In place of actual relationships with male role models, how are young boys shown following after their role models paths? Find at least three textual examples to explore how the novel shows younger generations taking after older generations.

(see the answer keys)

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