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

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

3. In "Get Me Some Medicine," what does David say he and Fellis usually use for gambling chips?

4. In "Food for the Common Cold," what does David use as a symbol of the unhappiness in his household?

5. In "Food for the Common Cold," what is the cause of the terrible smell in David's mother's house?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Food for the Common Cold," what is the difference between the way the adult narrator David and the child David in the story see the mood in the household during the week that Frick is gone?

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

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

4. In "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars," what does David point to as the beginning of the breakdown in his relationship with Tabitha?

5. In "The Blessing Tobacco," what does David try over and over to do on the way home from his grandmother's house, and what is the significance of this?

6. In "Get Me Some Medicine," what details demonstrate that David's friendship with Fellis does not blind David to Fellis's faults?

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

8. In "In a Jar," what does David's mother tell him about Goog'ooks?

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

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Meekew appears first in "Get Me Some Medicine," but this is not his only appearance in the stories in Night of the Living Rez. He appears again in "Half-Life." Is his characterization in this story consistent with his characterization in the earlier story? Does he play a similar role? How does his appearance in "Half-Life" augment what the reader already knows about him? How does having read many stories about David's life in between these two appearances impact the reader's reaction to Meekew? In retrospect, is the vicious beating Fellis gives Meekew in "Get Me Some Medicine" more or less shocking after reading more stories about David and Fellis? Write an essay that takes and defends a position on Talty's purpose in bringing Meekew back into the collection in "Half-Life." Support your assertions with evidence drawn from both stories. Cite all quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Given the events in the stories in this collection, it is clear that there are drawbacks to being a member of David's family, and that intergenerational trauma has a negative impact on his life. But what are the strengths of this family and of the tradition to which they belong? How might David's life have been diminished and his outcomes been worse if the family did not have these strengths to draw on? Write an essay that demonstrates that David's family and community pass on more than trauma to the younger generation. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the story, citing any quoted evidence 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.

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