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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 had Shawn told Will about Buck’s death as Will says in Chapter Six?

2. What is Buck’s real name as said in Chapter Six?

3. What does Uncle Mark say in Chapter Six when Frick says he was just trying to earn his stripes as a Dark Sun?

4. What would Shawn try to have Will remember about their dad as told in Chapter Five?

5. Who had given The Rules to Will’s dad as told in Chapter Four?

Short Essay Questions

1. How had Shawn come to know how their dad had passed on as told in Chapter Five? How had Buck become for Shawn after Mikey Holloman had died?

2. What does Uncle Mark ask Will after Will finishes the scene in Chapter Four? What does Uncle Mark say in reply to Will’s response?

3. Who gets on the elevator in Chapter Four? What does he do to Will?

4. How does Frick justify his killing Buck in Chapter Six? How do the other men in the elevator respond?

5. Who is Frick as said in Chapter Six? How is Frick described?

6. Who gets on the elevator in Chapter Five? What do the new person and Will do? How does Will feel?

7. How had Shawn learned what had happened to Buck as told in Chapter Six? Why was the person who told Shawn not considered a snitch?

8. When Will hears Buck talking about Shawn being upset in Chapter Six, who does Will think is the guy who bothered Shawn at the convenience store? What does Frick say when asked about Riggs?

9. According to Chapter Six, what had happened when Frick tried to rob Buck? How had Shawn learned what had happened?

10. How had Will’s dad felt after Uncle Mark’s death as told in Chapter Five? What is the figurative language his dad uses to describe how he feels?

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

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

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.

(see the answer keys)

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