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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. Who does Dean seek out in Denver?

2. What is Sal's and Marylou's plan before they arrive in San Francisco?

3. What is Dean's reaction to his passengers being terrified of his driving on his trip from Denver to Chicago?

4. What is Sal and Dean's plan before they take their second trip in 1949?

5. Where do Sal, Dean, and Marylou drop Alfred off?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Dean do when he, Sal, and Marylou arrive in San Francisco?

2. What place do Dean and Sal plan to travel to where they have never been before?

3. What does Old Bull think is a sign from Sal's father?

4. What happens to Sal in Mexico City?

5. Why does Dean want to take the trip with Sal and Stan?

6. Who do Sal and Dean ride with in a travel bureau car from San Francisco to Denver?

7. Whose ranch do Sal, Dean, and the two passengers visit in Colorado?

8. What is happening in Dean and Camille's lives when Sal visits them in San Francisco in the spring of 1949?

9. How do Sal, Dean, and Marylou get money so they can make it from Arizona to California?

10. Who are the other passengers in the travel bureau car that belongs to a wealthy man in Chicago?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

a. What are Sal and Dean's views on authority and authority figures? How can they live their lives in absence of authority?

b. What are Sal and Dean rebelling against?

c. How do Sal, Dean, and their friends rebel against what they oppose?

Cite specific examples from the book to support your answers.

Essay Topic 2

In Des Moines, Sal experiences the distinction of the East of his youth and the West of his future.

a. What does the West represent to Sal?

b. Contrast his life when he is living on the east coast and when he is living out west.

c. How have his voyages changed his views on life?

Essay Topic 3

Sal has views about different groups who were marginalized in mid-20th century America. What are his views on these groups? Are there any differences among categories of people? If so, why? Cite specific examples from the book.

(see the answer keys)

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