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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 Master Boyle’s advice?

2. Why is private Gar infuriated by SB’s routine talk about work?

3. Who is SB O'Donnell?

4. Why did Gar not go to college?

5. Where do the O’Donnells live?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way are the reactions of private and public Gar different as they remember Katie?

2. Who is Madge and how old is she?

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

4. What does private Gar suggest that Maire was unhappy about in her marriage?

5. 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) ?

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

7. When does private Gar taunt public Gar with memories of Katie and why?

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

9. Why is public Gar ecstatic in the beginning of the play?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explore the theme of dream and compare it with the feeble plans Gar makes to make them come true.

Essay Topic 2

While private Gar is expressive, public Gar is reticent yet needy. Evaluate this statement with respect to the central conflict and the role of emotions and relationships in the play.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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