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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 say it feels like sometimes when he thinks about Dani’s death in Chapter Three?

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

3. What does Dani ask when Will asks about her smoking in Chapter Three?

4. Who is the gang that Riggs is a part of, as said in Chapter Two?

5. What is Will’s random thought in Chapter One?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

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

4. What does Will insist to the reader directly after he introduces himself in the beginning of Chapter One? Why does he say he does this?

5. 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?

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

7. 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?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose and watch one of the following films, either “Moonlight” or “Boyz in the Hood.” Then compare the film of your choice to Long Way Down. What does each text represent about ts environment? What does it show about masculinity? How is masculinity shaped by or influenced by the environment? How are the works similar or different? Use at least two examples from each source in comparing.

Essay Topic 2

Will's mother has eczema, and scratches at herself to soothe the itch.Will in the first Chapter wonders if everyone is being eaten alive by something invisible, like her eczema (26). What does he mean by this? How is this idea shown or expanded later in the novel? Why is it continually used? Use at least three textual examples to explore this topic.

Essay Topic 3

How are women represented in Long Way Down? What are the roles and representations given to them? Write a summary of what you see pulling from two examples in the novel. Then write a claim arguing why you think this representation is shown the way it is. How does this representation connect to the environment of the novel? Use three examples in your claim.

(see the answer keys)

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