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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 do medical personnel encourage as a response to the disease?

2. Who realizes the truth about Miss Sadie's relationship with Ned?

3. What weapon does Uncle Finn use to threaten Jinx?

4. What is the janitor doing, when the girls see him at the school?

5. What three elements does Jinx plan to mix together for his secret mixture?

Short Essay Questions

1. What objection does Abilene make to Miss Sadie's story?

2. How is Miss Sadie's health when Abilene visits her on August 23, 1936?

3. What does Shady do while the liquids are being mixed for Jinx's mixture?

4. Why do the people in the town think there might be a traitor amongst them?

5. How do Jinx and Shady sell their miracle elixir?

6. What does the man from the government who comes to Shady's bar do while he's there?

7. On July 15, 1918, what does Abilene go to the cemetery to look for?

8. What role does Abilene take on at the end of the novel?

9. How does Devlin ask Mrs. Larkin to dinner?

10. Why is Miss Sadie's son not allowed to return to her country with her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Objects and mementos play an important role in uncovering and understanding the past. Discuss importance of objects in revealing the past in the novel.

1) Why do characters keep objects from the past? How do objects connect the characters to the past?

2) How do objects serve as clues for Abilene to recover the past and understand it?

3) What are the limitations of objects in revealing and remembering the past?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss storytelling in the novel.

1) How does storytelling, through Miss Sadie's stories, the "Remember When" entries, or other storytelling, help the characters maintain a relationship with the past?

2) How does storytelling affect or change the memory of the past? How does storytelling selectively change what is remembered and how?

Essay Topic 3

The novel is set in a small town in middle America in two different historical periods. Discuss the setting of the novel.

1) How do the historical time periods of the Great Depression and World War I affect the novel and its characters?

2) How does the location of a small town in rural America affect the novel? Why does the author choose this location?

3) Why does the author set the novel in one location, but in two time periods?

(see the answer keys)

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