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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 Buck tell Will about Will going to follow The Rules in Chapter Two?

2. How does Will feel on waking up the day after Shawn dies in Chapter One?

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

4. Who steps onto the elevator in Chapter Three?

5. What does Will think of when he takes Shawn’s gun out from under his pillow after waking up in Chapter One?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. 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”?

8. What are the people in Will’s neighborhood trained to do when there are gunshots, as described by Will in Chapter One?

9. 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?

10. What does Will describe as a “strange thing” in the beginning of Chapter Two? What does he call this?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

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

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.

(see the answer keys)

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