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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 "Smokes Last," what item of clothing is Tyson constantly trying, unsuccessfully, to keep clean?

2. In "The Name Means Thunder," what does David attribute his temporary blindness to?

3. In "Half-Life," which earlier story does David allude to when he is telling Fellis a story from his childhood?

4. In "Half-Life," what is the implied reason that David throws up as soon as he gets home to his mother's house?

5. In "Smokes Last," what are the sources of most of the insults characters use against one another?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Night of the Living Rez," what are the pugwagees?

2. In "Safe Harbor," what does David's reaction to his mother's medical crisis reveal about their relationship?

3. In "Safe Harbor," what is written on the clinic's whiteboard, and what is David's reaction?

4. 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?

5. In "Night of the Living Rez," what is a reasonable inference about whom Paige is referring to when she loudly calls someone "That motherfucking pig," and what evidence backs up this inference (244)?

6. In "Half-Life," what incident early in the story demonstrates how much time David has begun losing to his drug use?

7. 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?

8. 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?

9. In "Smokes Last," what is the rhetorical function of the grilled cheese burning?

10. In "Earth, Speak," what is the ostensible reason that David and Fellis go to see Daryl?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose two stories in which the depictions of the natural environment create starkly differing atmospheres. Write an essay explicating how language and detail choices create these two differing atmospheres. Then, analyze the function of these differing atmospheres. How do they support the differing action of these two stories? How do they amplify what characters are experiencing? What thematic ideas are these two atmospheres supporting? If they support similar thematic motifs, how does Talty manage to make contrasting atmospheres support similar ideas? If they support differing thematic ideas, what aspects of their contrasting impact on the reader are used to convey these differing themes? Support your assertions with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from both stories, citing quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

In "Night of the Living Rez," Talty makes a claim for Native representation by Native peoples. How does his own biography support his implicit claim that he is qualified to tell the stories he tells in this collection? Where did he grow up? What relationship do the book's characters have to people in the author's real life? Did Talty have experiences in his own life that these stories reflect? Use outside research into Talty's life, including interviews he has given on this subject, to construct and support an argument about his qualification to tell the stories in Night of the Living Rez. Support your argument with evidence drawn from your outside research and from throughout the story collection, citing all quoted evidence and evidence from outside sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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