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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. How old is the boy in the story, Down at the Dinghy?

2. Where does the narrator see the talented young singer, giving him a chance to speak with her?

3. What does Sandra worry about weighing around the boy?

4. What does the narrator's mother-in-law want him to send her?

5. What is one of Joanie's best traits?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Boo Boo handle Lionel's habit of running away?

2. Why does Lionel run away so often?

3. Why does the tea room likely suit the narrator as a place to spend his last few hours in the town rather than the Red Cross recreation room?

4. Why is the narrator so taken with Sister Irma?

5. Why does Bobby move the family to Paris in 1929?

6. Why does Esme's long and complicated letter soothe the narrator more than one from his family?

7. How does the story, Down at the Dinghy, end?

8. Why does the narrator and Bobby move back to New York nine years later?

9. What happens to the narrator after he leaves the training course?

10. Why does Arthur think his marriage isn't working?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast your favorite and least favorite characters in the book. Use specific examples from the book to explain what you do and do not like about each character.

Essay Topic 2

What do we learn about World War II throughout Nine Stories? Why is it such a prevalent theme throughout this collection of short stories?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss irony as a theme throughout the Nine Stories collection. How is it used to create suspense, power and other emotions that are meant to draw the reader into the stories?

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