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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 is Luke writing a book about?

2. What mythical symbol does Karen say she and Temple make when they make love?

3. What does the DA find the Byrdie case is an exercise in?

4. How does the narrator characterize Temple’s mother, Dee?

5. How does Temple see himself once he starts at UVA?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the outcome of the court scene?

2. How did Karen get the nickname “Shadow” (139)?

3. What is the “holy shit moment” that happens in the courtroom (215)?

4. How does Meg manage to get by when someone from Fleming Oil recognizes her and connects her to Lee?

5. How does Karen end up involved deciphering Temple’s love letters?

6. What causes Meg to reassess her appearance, and what does she find when she does?

7. How do Temple and Karen end up going to UVA?

8. How does the narrator characterize the secret society Byrdie joins at the University of Virginia?

9. How do Lomax and Meg skate by when a local cocaine bust does not touch them?

10. What is the sheltering sky, and what does it mean to Temple?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Mislaid farce, satire or caricature? Which of these genres is it most comfortable in? In what way might that genre still not fit exactly?

Essay Topic 2

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

Essay Topic 3

When is Mislaid most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,052 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample