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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 "Earth, Speak," why is David so sick in the period right after he runs from the police?
2. In "Earth, Speak," what rumor does Beth share about Ralph Nelson?
3. In "Safe Harbor," what kind of medication does David's mother regularly take?
4. In "Smokes Last," what does David believe is the reason his mother has been irritable with him and Frick lately?
5. In "Half-Life," how many days does David manage to go without taking any Klonopin?
Short Essay Questions
1. At the end of "Night of the Living Rez," how is David's mother's behavior similar to her behavior near the end of "Earth, Speak"?
2. When David is running from the police in "Earth, Speak," what help does he get from an unexpected source, and what evidence is there in the end of the story that this gesture mattered deeply to David?
3. Which details in "Half-Life" demonstrate that David does not fully trust Fellis?
4. In "Safe Harbor," what is written on the clinic's whiteboard, and what is David's reaction?
5. In "Safe Harbor," when David is discussing his and his mother's trauma, what cryptic comment hints to the reader that he has yet to reveal some major source of trauma?
6. In the beginning of "Smokes Last," what is ironic about David's mother's instructions to him before he leaves to play in the woods with his friends?
7. In "The Name Means Thunder," how do the words that David whispers to Bedogi contrast with what David is really thinking and feeling?
8. In "Smokes Last," what is the rhetorical function of the grilled cheese burning?
9. In "Earth, Speak," how does a comment from Tabitha seem paradoxical to David?
10. What aspects of the narrative voice in "The Name Means Thunder" clarify for the reader the time period in which David is telling these stories?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Now that you have finished the collection and know more about how David's life turns out, which kind of caterpillar do you think he is--the kind that gets crushed on the road, or the kind that survives, transcends, and becomes a butterfly? What does this symbolism have to do with other ideas in the text about agency and circumstance? What does it have to do with the importance of setting? Write an essay in which you place the caterpillar symbolism of "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars" into the larger context of the story collection as a whole. Consider how this symbolism supports thematic motifs found elsewhere in the text and how later stories impact your understanding of this symbolism. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text. Cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.
Essay Topic 2
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 3
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.
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This section contains 1,454 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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