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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 is Madge doing when the play opens?

2. In the flashback with Katie, what is Katie’s concern?

3. What does Boyle give Gar?

4. What, according to private Gar, is the difference between Ireland and the United States?

5. What does Boyle ask of Gar once he is in Philadelphia?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does private Gar question public Gar whether the latter understands the implications of his decision to leave?

2. How does private Gar try to bring out the difference between public Gar and SB?

3. How does private Gar encourage public Gar in his plans?

4. Who makes the decision to tell Katie’s parents about their plan to get married? Do they tell them? Why?

5. Who is Madge and how old is she?

6. When does Katie marry Francis? How does private Gar console public Gar?

7. What does public Gar mean when he says “on my last day with him he got ten minutes’ overtime out of my hide” (2)?

8. What is the effect of the imagery, “big bugger of a jet, with its snout pointing straight for the States and its tail belching smoke over Ireland" (3) ?

9. What is SB’s nightly routine? Why does private Gar mock him for it?

10. What does Madge mean when she says, “A body couldn’t get a word in edge-ways with you two" (30)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe how inner conflict in the protagonist is explored through private and public Gar in Philadelphia, Here I Come. Analyze how two different personalities are brought out through this mechanism. How does this help us understand the whole Gar?

Essay Topic 2

Describe how Madge’s perspective could give the plot a different structure. Take into consideration her refusal to take a position.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay on tragicomic features in the play. What is the effect of narrating failures, missed opportunities and missed relationships in a way that is farcical rather than tragic?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 825 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample