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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. Where is the private hospital located where Emil goes to recuperate?

2. How was Bobby Cole killed?

3. What is the real reason for Amelia's absence from church?

4. What is the name that some people in town call Jake and that Frank calls him as well when he is angry?

5. Where do Frank and Jake run to after seeing the dead body at the train tracks?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is significant about Nathan's query to the boys about whether Gus had been winning at poker?

2. During Gus' and Frank's conversation about Nathan's experiences in the war, what two sources of information does Gus warn Frank against heeding?

3. Why is it such a significant moment when Nathan tells his sons, Frank and Jake, about the first dead body he saw in the war?

4. What is the situation that results in Frank, Jake, and Nathan going to the jail in the middle of the night?

5. What are the reasons Officer Doyle gives for finding Bobby Cole's death suspicious?

6. How does Officer Doyle's search of Warren Redstone's lean-to sway the reader's opinion of Warren Redstone's character?

7. What messages is the reader meant to absorb from the conversation between Frank and Warren Redstone in the O'Keefes' basement?

8. When Frank and Jake come upon the Indian man and the apparently lifeless man referred to as Skipper, the Indian man says, "Know what I like about railroad tracks? They're always there but they're always moving" (32). When Jake replies, "Just like a river" (32), why is Frank shocked at Jake's reply?

9. What is ironic about Lise's reaction to Frank's grabbing of her shoulder when they succeed in moving the huge rock in her garden?

10. What are the purposes of the Drum family's visit to Emil and Lise Brandt's house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Within the epilogue, Frank states there "there is no such thing as a true event" (306). What does he mean and how do these words fit into the context of the novel's overarching themes?

Essay Topic 2

A small-town Midwest town is an unexpected setting for a mystery novel. How does the setting influence and affect the mood, events, and milieu of the novel's narrative?

Essay Topic 3

Choose one character from the novel. Discuss Krueger's use of the four characterization methods to depict this character: indirect description, direct description, revelation by self, and relation by others. How does Krueger use these methods to shape the reader's impression of the character?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,384 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample