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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 does Gus brag to Roy about when they are talking in Memo's motel room?

2. Who is Max Mercy?

3. What does Roy promise his fans?

4. What does Max Mercy do when he sees Roy and Memo return to the motel?

5. By what name does Roy call his personal bat?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Roy goes to visit Memo in her hotel room and finds Gus there?

2. Discuss the dreams of Roy and the failures he has experienced up to this point.

3. What is significant about the white rose that Harriet carries?

4. Discuss the reaction of the fans when The Judge refuses to give Roy a raise. What do they do?

5. How does Memo treat Roy after the fans declare him a hero.

6. Why did Pop hire Doc Knobb, and what was Roy's opinion of him?

7. What did Roy see immediately after he beat up The Judge and left the tower where he was?

8. When Roy ended up in the hospital from overeating, what did the doctor tell him about his career in baseball?

9. How does Iris feel about Roy when she meets him in person, and why?

10. What does Iris tell Roy when he says his life has been a series of disappointments?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Malamud paints the ballplayers as "larger than life" in the novel. Discuss passages in the book where the reader can see ballplayers rendered in a majestic, larger-than-life, or deity-like manner.

Essay Topic 2

When Roy starts hitting for the team, his teammates wonder if he is for himself or the team. Discuss whether he is for the team or himself, or whether his allegiance changes over the course of the book. Defend your answer with passages from the book.

Essay Topic 3

Malamud tells us that sometimes when Hobbs watched the baseball come to him before hitting it, he thought it looked like all circles, and he didn't like circles. He made the statement that circles just bring you back to the place you started from. Explain that theme from the novel, coming back to where you started. What examples from the novel illustrate that theme?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 924 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample