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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. Whose death is revealed at the end of Chapter 4?

2. Middle sister often pleads with maybe-boyfriend not to take what action?

3. When ma hands over her purse to someone before going to the hospital, middle sister feels an emotion akin to what?

4. Middle sister is shocked to hear from which character that she has been deemed a "beyond-the pale" (192) within the community?

5. What is true of every family member in longest friend's family?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Semtex symbolize within the novel?

2. What does middle sister mean when she says, "My inner world, it seemed, had gone away" (176)?

3. Discuss a particular allusion Burns uses to allude to another literary work associated with the theme of depression.

4. What is the ultimate fate of longest friend?

5. What revelation does ma make about real milkman during one of her breaks from the hospital?

6. What three-syllable response does middle sister use in response to any question she is ever asked and why?

7. Who is tablets girl?

8. What change occurs in middle sister's feelings for maybe-boyfriend after the milkman begins to stalk her?

9. What kind of murders are said to be "unfathomable" (237) within the confines of middle sister's community and why are they described in this way?

10. What act does middle sister see as the one that would symbolize her surrender to the milkman?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Burns’s use of the motif of sound within the novel entitled Milkman.

Essay Topic 2

How does Burns use sensory details in order to strengthen the text’s messages? Discuss at least two passages that include the use of sensory details and pull quotes from these passages to support your claim.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that discusses the symbolism of the cover art chosen for Milkman.

(see the answer keys)

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