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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. At the time of the mass-slaughter of neighborhood animals by soldiers, middle sister and which other character had been the youngest children in their family?

2. The only person in middle sister's neighborhood who is widely regarded as a shiny person is the sister of which character?

3. Which character has been making lewd remarks to middle sister since the day he met her?

4. What objects does middle sister use to wrap the head of the animal she finds in the ten-minute area?

5. What is the only event that ever causes maybe-boyfriend to become angry and combative?

Short Essay Questions

1. What aspects of maybe-boyfriend's life are revealed within Chapters 1 and 2 of the novel?

2. What truths does middle sister reveal to ma during their first conversation about the milkman?

3. What contrast does middle sister point out between da's level of openness in life and his level of openness in death?

4. Why are the students in middle sister's French class so loathe to hear the sky described as any other color besides blue?

5. What is the ten-minute-area?

6. Which elements of middle sister's second interaction with the milkman make her feel relatively safe?

7. Which answers are said to be "acceptable" (72) when one is asked the color of the sky in middle sister's society?

8. What evidence does middle sister provide for her claim that third brother-in-law should have been designated as a "beyond-the-pale" (41) by now, but that he has not?

9. What is the symbolism of the British tabloids and newspapers?

10. How do the students in middle sister's class react to French teacher's comments about the sky and which elements of their society have caused them to instinctively feel this way?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Burns’s use of metaphor, simile, imagery, and other literary devices as a means to send particular thematic messages within the narrative of Milkman.

Essay Topic 2

Would Burns’s novel Milkman be classified as a dystopian novel? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

How does Burns use the first person point of view to tell the story of Milkman and in what way does this choice serve the purposes of the text? Discuss how Burns’s choice of point of view helps to advance the treatment of at least three particular themes within the text.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,585 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample