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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. How many years older than the protagonist is maybe-boyfriend?

2. Middle sister says that every other student in the class is different from her in what way?

3. With whom does middle sister nearly collide when she stands up in the ten-minute area after picking up the head of an animal?

4. What make is the car from which maybe-boyfriend gleans a car part bearing the image of a flag?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. For what reason does the real milkman bring up the subject of wee sisters?

2. Which member of middle sister's family does she despise and why?

3. What event convinces middle sister that the tactics she has been using to ward off the milkman are not working?

4. What are the real reasons for middle sister's reluctance to meet maybe-boyfriend in her own neighborhood?

5. What does maybe-boyfriend suspect about middle sister's reasons for never meeting him in her own neighborhood?

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

7. For what reason does middle sister discuss the activities that go on in the park where she likes to go for runs?

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

9. With which aspect of middle sister's habit of walking while reading does third brother-in-law take issue and why?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze Burns from an Existential perspective. What elements of life does it suggest hold the most meaning and why?

Essay Topic 3

What is Burns’s message regarding the connection between silence and control and what tools are used within Milkman in order to get this message across to the reader?

(see the answer keys)

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