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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 "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars," where does David say he met Tabitha?

2. In the context of "Burn," what is the most likely meaning of the term "skeejin" (1)?

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

4. In "In a Jar," where does Frick place the yellow straw wrapped in red cloth?

5. In "Food for the Common Cold," what gift has David recently been given by his father?

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 "Burn," what does the reservation doctor tell David he is ineligible for, and what does David see this as an example of?

4. In "Food for the Common Cold," what are David's mother's and David's grandmother's opposing opinions about telling Frick about the hysterectomy?

5. In "Get Me Some Medicine," which behaviors of Fellis's indicate that he has a habit of blaming others for his problems?

6. In "The Blessing Tobacco," how does David end up smoking cigarettes at his grandmother's house?

7. In "Get Me Some Medicine," what is Fellis's ostensible issue with Meekew, and what does the story imply is his real issue?

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

9. In "Food for the Common Cold," what does David do after the argument between Frick and his mother about the headstone?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

You have already spent some time considering how the title "Half-Life" relates to the motif of sleep and unconsciousness. David is in many ways "half-alive" in this story. But the term "half-life" generally is used to refer to the decay rate of substances--radioactive elements, medications, and so on. How is this additional meaning related to David's drug-induced somnambulism? Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about what might be "decaying" in David or in his life and show how this is related to the larger motif of "sleepwalking" through life. Support your assertions with evidence from throughout the story, citing any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

David and Fellis's plan to steal from the tribal museum shows how disconnected they have come to feel from their own tribal community and implies that they feel entitled to a larger share of cultural and financial resources than the tribe has offered them. How does this relate to David's yearning for fry bread in "Night of the Living Rez"? How does it relate to David's remark about being cut off from traditional medicine in "Burn"? Where else in these stories do you see evidence that the tribal community is not taking collective responsibility for children like David? Write an essay in which you advance and defend an argument about what these stories say about the breakdown of community responsibility on David's reservation. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the collection, citing any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

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.

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