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| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. In "Half-Life," what color does David find his hands are stained?
2. In "Half-Life," when David is waiting for Meekew to get home, where is Meekew?
3. In "The Name Means Thunder," what is David going to see a doctor about?
4. In "Night of the Living Rez," how long has it been since David last spent the summer with his father?
5. In "Half-Life," which earlier story does David allude to when he is telling Fellis a story from his childhood?
Short Essay Questions
1. In "Safe Harbor," what is the double meaning of the question David asks when he is brought into the emergency room?
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. In "Safe Harbor," what does David's reaction to his mother's medical crisis reveal about their relationship?
4. 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?
5. In "Half-Life," how do David's mother and grandmother seem to feel about him?
6. In "Safe Harbor," what is written on the clinic's whiteboard, and what is David's reaction?
7. In "Night of the Living Rez," what is David's rhetorical purpose in describing the details of how his mother is driving as she questions him about his father?
8. In "Smokes Last," what is the rhetorical function of the grilled cheese burning?
9. In "Earth, Speak," why is Fellis so angry at Daryl?
10. In "Night of the Living Rez," what does David think the woman has in the Gatorade bottle, and how does he later learn what the liquid really is?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
What distinction is David drawing in "Earth, Speak" when he says that his mother "spoke to to [him]--not to [his] body"? (221) How does this distinction explain why, even after he is physically cured of his methadone addiction, he returns to Ralph's sweat lodge to participate in a ceremony with Ralph? What belief about his addiction is David expressing in this story? Write an essay in which you analyze the relationship between body and mind that David is proposing in this story and how it relates to his addiction and eventual recovery. Support your assertions with evidence from throughout the story, citing any quoted evidence in MLA format.
Essay Topic 2
One of the hallmarks of Native literature is a conception of time as circular rather than linear, traveling around a repeating path where key events recur, with slight variations. How is this evident in the collapsing of time in "The Blessing Tobacco"? Where else in the collection do symbols, language, and events reinforce this concept of time? How does the collection's overall structure reinforce this same idea? Write an essay that contextualizes the confabulation of David's life with Robbie's in "The Blessing Tobacco," showing how it demonstrates a circular conception of time that is echoed in other facets of the story collection. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the collection, citing any quoted evidence in MLA format.
Essay Topic 3
"Half-Life" is not the only story in this collection where water plays a symbolic role. Choose another story where water seems to play such a role. Is water being used to convey the same kinds of ideas, or does the water seem to play a different role in this second story? Write an essay that compares and contrasts the symbolic use of water in these two stories. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from both stories, citing any quoted evidence in MLA format.
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This section contains 1,396 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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