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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. What does Dean do while Camille is at work?

2. What happens in a restaurant in Denver when Sal and Dean are en route to New York?

3. What is Sal and Dean's dream about while driving in a car?

4. Where do Sal and Dean clean up in Chicago?

5. What are Sal and Dean's travel companions' reactions when they overhear Sal and Dean's discussing their car dream?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where do Sal, Dean, and Stan Shepherd travel in Part 4 of On the Road?

2. What happens when Sal and Dean return the travel bureau car in Chicago?

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

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

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

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

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

8. What arrives in San Francisco that allows Sal to return to New York?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

a. Why is being on the road so important to the Beat Movement?

b. What transformations or epiphanies do the following characters have, if any, after being "on the road"? Cite specific examples from the book.

- Sal Paradise

- Dean Moriarty

- Ed Dunkel

- Stan Shepherd

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

a. Are middle-class American values compatible with being Beat or does an individual need to pick one over the other?

b. Do Sal and Dean change their values or way of life depending on their circumstances, or do they hold true to their beliefs? Cite examples from the book.

c. What were some challenges to the Beat way of life that Sal faced and how did he handle them? Cite examples from the book.

(see the answer keys)

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