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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 Johanna feel her clothes were designed to do?

2. Why are two soldiers guarding the door at Captain Kidd’s reading in Dallas?

3. What was Jefferson Kyle Kidd’s wife Maria Luisa Betancourt y Real doing when he first saw her?

4. What does Mrs. Gannet offer Johanna in Chapter 9 to win her over?

5. What is the meaning of the song Johanna sings as she and Captain Kidd make their way to Spanish Fort?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Captain Kidd’s approach to reading local news?

2. How does the narrator characterize the political situation in Texas while Captain Kidd and Johanna are making their trip?

3. What does Captain Kidd like about the message corps?

4. Why does the narrator say that there is no Kiowa word for thank you?

5. How does Johanna fare once Captain Kidd starts teaching her English?

6. Who is Almay and what proposition does he make to Captain Kidd?

7. How does Captain Kidd settle his own doubts about whether he can take care of Johanna?

8. What is the town of Spanish Fort like?

9. How does the Miss Dillon say that Johanna resembles the doll she gives her?

10. What was it that made Captain Kidd want to be a news reader?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

For Captain Kidd, the frontier is the outer edge of civilization, but from San Antonio and Houston, the modern world was much closer by. What changes were taking place in the outer borders of Captain Kidd’s world, and how would those changes affect life in the towns and cities where News of the World takes place? What were the dominant tensions in that modern world, and how do you think the main characters would adapt to those new tensions?

Essay Topic 2

In the history of the American frontier, it was not so common for captives to be returned from the Native American tribes to the towns. It was much more common for whites to take Native Americans from their families and install them in residential schools where they were forced to forget their Native culture and language. How does Jiles’ novel act as a kind of connection with, and apology for, this other history, which is only touched tangentially? What emotions does Johanna’s story evoke, that are also connected to that other story?

Essay Topic 3

Where is the climax of this book? Are there different climaxes? What questions does each climax resolve? What questions does each climax leave unanswered? How does the book regulate the tension between tense periods and climaxes?

(see the answer keys)

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