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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. In "Get Me Some Medicine," what television show have David and Fellis been watching?

2. In "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars," what technique is used when David describes Fellis's face as "kind of like if you'd put two black dots and a line on an orange" (90)?

3. What technique is used when David says that no one has shoveled "since the last nor'easter crapped snow in November" (1)?

4. In "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars," what television show do David and Fellis watch while Beth makes dinner?

5. In "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars," what does the burning chicken casserole demonstrate about the characters' lives?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "The Blessing Tobacco," what is the rhetorical function of the passage where David considers whom he should "smoke like" (108)?

2. In "Get Me Some Medicine," why does Fellis get so angry at David for saying that Meekew could beat Fellis in a fistfight?

3. In "The Blessing Tobacco," when David is feeling sick, how does Paige demonstrate her concern and affection?

4. In "Get Me Some Medicine," how do David and Fellis end up binge-watching an old television series?

5. How does David discover the jar in "In a Jar"?

6. In "Food for the Common Cold," when David's mother tells David's grandmother "Miracles can happen.... But I don't want to risk what happened before," what is she talking about (65)?

7. Which details does Talty include in "In a Jar" that make clear to the reader that David's life before the reservation did not include many other Native people?

8. In "The Blessing Tobacco," where does David get a drink on his way home from his grandmother's, and what is the significance of this?

9. In "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars," what is the rhetorical purpose of the story's ambiguous ending?

10. In "Burn," what does Fellis asks David to do when he goes back to town to get marijuana, beer, and chips, and why does Fellis ask David to do this?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the physical business with coffee in the story "Safe Harbor" convey David's inability to find comfort in the world? Why does it matter that he is having coffee with his mother in this story? How does coffee figure into the story's conclusion? What are some of the associations that a reader might be expected to bring to the idea of coffee--what age are the people who generally drink it, how is it supposed to make them feel, and so on? Write an essay that describes the role that coffee plays in the story and analyzes its significance. Support your assertions with evidence from throughout the story, citing any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Now that you have read the entire collection, what foreshadowing do you see in the discovery of the glass jar in "In a Jar"? How does this foreshadowing relate to the symbolic function of miniatures and containers in this story? What larger theme developed in this collection does this support? Write an essay in which you analyze the symbolic function of containers and miniatures in "In a Jar" and then connect this to events that take place later in the collection, showing how this symbolism is being used to introduce one of the text's thematic motifs. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the collection, citing any quoted material in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Does the whiteness of the snow and ice in "Burn" matter? Is this story indicting the conditions on the reservation that result from White interference in Native life? Or does it matter more that the snow is a cold, frozen obstacle--a static "trap" that communicates something about the way Natives can be "frozen" and "trapped" in old traditions and ways of thinking? Now that you have read the entire collection, which interpretation of the snow in "Burn" seems most correct to you? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about what the snow represents. You can choose either interpretation--or both--to defend, as long as your argument is thoroughly supported with evidence from "Burn" and from at least two other stories in the collection. Cite any quoted material in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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