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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. Who sends Abilene and her friends out to search for something?

2. How much money does Ned have?

3. What do Shady and Jinx use to make the extra liquor?

4. What kind of sandwiches do the girls eat while they are out searching?

5. When Abilene visits Miss Sadie on June 13, 1936, what does she ask Miss Sadie about?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the fireworks man show Ned and Jinx?

2. How does Abilene answer questions about her parents at school?

3. What noise does Abilene hear while she and her friends are out hunting?

4. What is Abilene doing before her friends come by to ask her to come hunting?

5. What indication of the KKK's activities do Shady and Jinx see?

6. Where does Ned go after leaving the town?

7. What makes Abilene think that Sister Redempta has been to see Miss Sadie?

8. Why does Abilene's father choose Manifest as the place he sends her?

9. What newspaper clipping does Abilene show Lettie and Ruthanne at the end of "Likely Suspects"?

10. What does Mr. Underhill do at the cemetery?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss what it means to be an American in the novel.

1) What qualifies someone as an American in the novel? Can immigrants truly be Americans?

2) What meaning does serving in the war have for the characters? Does it make the soldiers more American? Why or why not?

3) How does the Victory Quilt reflect patriotism and identity as an American? What does the rejection of the Hungarian woman's square mean for the town and its definition of who is an American?

Essay Topic 2

Abilene attempts to uncover the past and in the process makes the town remember the past. Discuss the past and remembrance in the novel.

1) What makes characters want to forget or bury the past? What are the benefits in the novel of remembering the past?

2) How does Abilene recover the past and cause the town to remember?

3) Is remembering the past harmful to anyone? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Jinx uses trickery and deception to help himself and the town. Discuss trickery and deception in the novel.

1) How do characters like Devlin, Jinx, and Abilene use trickery and deception for their own means? What makes some uses of trickery positive in the novel, while other uses are negative?

2) How does the town use trickery and deception? Why are these means necessary to counter Devlin? Are these means justified?

3) What is the author's perspective on trickery and deception?

(see the answer keys)

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