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

2. What does Moth say she is when Sani asks her in Part IV?

3. What peppers the windshield on the way to Sani's father's house?

4. Where does Interstate 40 reach from and to?

5. What does Moth imagine Thomas Jefferson had?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are both Moth's and Sani's favorite lyric from "Summer Song" in Part IV?

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

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

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

5. Why does the Water Monster in Sani's Third World rain such sadness?

6. What is special about the Fourth World in Sani's story?

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

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

9. How does Sani feel at the reservation?

10. What makes Sani and Moth laugh hard in the Time Travel Motel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Why do you think McBride chose to write this novel in verse? How does the style of the novel influence the reader's experience of understanding the characters and plot? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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