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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 Moth imagine Thomas Jefferson had?

2. Where do Moth and Sani make an unplanned stop in Part III?

3. How does Moth tell Sani he tells stories?

4. What is about the size of West Virginia that Sani and Moth visit?

5. What does Moth compare her own scar to?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is one major thing Moth's grandfather taught her about the South?

2. What does Moth's grandfather once tell her about her story?

3. What does Sani appear to take his pills for?

4. Why does Sani tell Moth that the Holy Ones planned the constellations?

5. What does Sani's father implore him to do in Part IV, he says, for his own good?

6. Why does Moth get so upset at the Bluebird Cafe?

7. Why do the people in Sani's creation story move from world to world?

8. What does Moth notice about the way Sani's father greets them in Part IV?

9. What does Moth see in Sani's room at his father's house that startles her terribly?

10. What does Moth tell Sani the ancestors gave her in answer to her prayers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

This novel features a road trip, a fairly well-trodden plot device. How does McBride both follow and depart from some of the more traditional uses of the road trip in other books you've read with similar themes centering around extended journeys? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think McBride chooses to delve into different creation stories during Moth's and Sani's road trip? How do these stories relate to the trip itself, and to what both Moth and Sani are struggling with? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

Why does Sani abandon Moth toward the end of their road trip, just before they reach his father's house? How does Moth find her way back to forgiving Sani for this betrayal? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 665 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample