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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 do Sal, Dean, and Stan meet in a town called Gregoria?

2. How does Sal feel after Dean confides in Sal about his reaction to their fight?

3. What does Dean tell Sal after their first real argument?

4. Who are Sal and Dean's passengers on their trip to Chicago in the travel bureau car?

5. What does Sal do to put a rift in his friendship with Dean and Camille?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens between Sal and Marylou in San Francisco?

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

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

4. What does Dean's cousin, Sam Brady, tell Dean when he was attempting to locate his father in Denver?

5. What happens to Sal, Dean, and Marylou's car in Texas?

6. Who does Dean meet at a party in New York?

7. What decision did the other passengers override Sal and Dean on in Sacramento?

8. What does Camille do to Dean and Sal in the spring of 1949?

9. Why are the car owner and the couple all too happy to drop Sal and Dean off in Denver?

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

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 American culture, starting as early as the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the California Gold Rush, California is viewed as the land of hope and promise.

a. Explain how California is viewed by Okies and Mexican immigrants in On the Road.

b. Explain how it is viewed by Sal Paradise.

Essay Topic 3

Friends play a significant role in Sal Paradise's life.

a. As a result of a rift among his friends, Sal is torn between the more established and secure types, like Chad King, and the more frenzied Dean Moriarty and Carlo Marx. How does being torn between friends represent Sal's inner conflicts between being established or rebellious?

b. How do relationships with friends function in Beat culture?

(see the answer keys)

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