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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’s dad do as Will and he hug in Chapter Five?

2. What does Will feel looking at his dad in Chapter Five after his dad finishes his story?

3. What does the sound of Will’s dad cocking the gun in Chapter Five sound like to Will?

4. Who was Buck’s stepdad as said in Chapter Six?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Chapter Six, why was Shawn upset as he tells to Buck? What does Buck do to comfort him?

2. 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?

3. What does Frick show to Will in Chapter Six? What do he and Buck say about what he shows Will?

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

5. What is the script of the film Uncle Mark wants to make as described by Jessie in Chapter Four?

6. How is Buck two-sided, as said in Chapter Six? What do people in the neighborhood say about him?

7. Who finishes the scene for Will in Chapter Four? What does Will feel when he echoes the ending?

8. What are the stories Shawn had told Will about their dad in Chapter Five? What does Will remember about these stories?

9. How does Will feel realizing his father shot the wrong guy as told in Chapter Five? How had he imagined his father?

10. Why does Frick try to rob Buck as told in Chapter Six? Why do other people not try to rob Buck?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Generational patterns are repeated in Long Way Down. Characters are mirrors of one another. Literary devices using mirroring, such as a mise en abyme and repetition are used. At the end Chapter Six, after Frick is done speaking, Will looks into the elevator and sees only himself. What do you make of this mirroring on a narrative and stylistic level? What does it say about the content of the novel and the novel's eventual message? Write an argument pulling from at least two of the examples above in addition to two other examples from the novel of your choosing.

Essay Topic 2

By the end of the novel, Shawn gets off the elevator and asks Will, "you coming?" (306). There is no further action. Why does the plot cut off so suddenly here? And what happens next based on what has already occurred in the novel? Develop an argument for what happens next based on the events of the novel. Use at least four textual examples to support your claim. Then connect this to an argument of why you think Long Way Down ends so suddenly.

Essay Topic 3

The Rules are the center of the novel's events, driving Will's actions as well as the actions of generations before him. Will says repeatedly, "The Rules are the rules," implying that they can not be changed. Why is this the case? Why has Will, and others, accepted The Rules so readily? What have The Rules done for the community? And finally, does the novel show that The Rules are The Rules, or does it show something different? Use four textual examples to support your paper.

(see the answer keys)

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