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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 the only possession of Father's and Caroline's that is left in their old cave house?

2. What name is Caroline supposed to give if she is stopped in the city?

3. Who comes to the farm with the Ryder truck?

4. What kind of building is the Father and Caroline's new house?

5. What game does Caroline often play with Father?

Short Essay Questions

1. What seems to be happening to Father while they are living in the house, and what textual details support this interpretation?

2. What does Valerie say she dislikes about Caroline, and what seems to be the real motivation for her hostility?

3. Describe the place where Caroline and Father have been sleeping for a while by the end of Part Four.

4. When they are walking back home on the night when the story begins, what animal does Father tell Caroline to look at, and why?

5. What do Father and Caroline find when they return to their house in Forest Park?

6. What kind of psychological test does Jean Bauer run with the pictures?

7. At the end of Part Two, what two things does Jean Bauer give to Caroline, and how does she demonstrate that she has been listening to Caroline's complaints about her room?

8. The novel opens with Caroline reflecting that "There's nothing to do but keep walking, you have to be ready for everything" (3). What does this comment tell the reader about Caroline's state of mind?

9. When Caroline is in state custody, which character that Caroline already knows turns out to be her roommate, and what surprises Caroline about the girl's behavior?

10. What arrives in the yellow truck, and what is Father's response?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that analyzes the life that Caroline has built for herself at the end of My Abandonment. What does this life represent, thematically, when you consider My Abandonment as a coming-of-age novel? Offer textual support to defend your claims.

Essay Topic 2

Choose one of the "three-named men"--Emerson, Rousseau, or Thoreau--and write an essay that connects their ideas to the characters, events, and themes of My Abandonment. Use textual support to defend your claims and cite outside sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that considers the rhetorical purpose of including Valerie and Taffy in this story. How do they impact Caroline's growth, what do they represent, and what do they reveal about Caroline's character? Be sure to support your claims with textual evidence.

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