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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 Mama living in 1953?

2. What does Chris agree to do for Blood at the end of Chapter 12?

3. Where is Slim when Pearl Harbor is bombed?

4. What happens to Slim at the end of Chapter 17?

5. What does Slim pretend to be to pull off his post-Leavenworth money-making plan?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the sewer in the chapter 15 title refer to?

2. Slim manages to move past blunt physical trauma to a more elegant finesse when he realizes he's in danger of losing Rachel in Chapter 20. How does Slim employ his psychological genius once again to ensure Rachel's loyalty?

3. Twice in Chapter 19, Slim turns to family for help. To whom does he go and for what?

4. Slim has two near-murder experiences in Chapter 20. Who does he nearly kill, how and why doesn't he?

5. Why is image, represented by material things, so important to a pimp?

6. What prompts Runt to work harder after her return in Chapter 12?

7. How does the relationship between Chris and Slim evolve during the 1940's in Chapter 14?

8. Slim finally feels like he is totally alone when he is released from Leavenworth in Chapter 16 and discovers Chris has married and had a baby. Is his reaction to this information purely selfish or is it possible that he has himself contemplated marrying Chris and is jealous of her ability to establish love and stability for herself?

9. While out on bail in Chapter 16, how does Slim show his true colors as a friend to Sweet Jones and why?

10. Mavis is a female drug dealer and one of the few women in the story who is not a prostitute. How does Mavis being female make her an appropriate target for Slim's robbery attempt in Chapter 17?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 21, it is the news of Party Time's demise that finally provides the impetus for Slim to pull his life together and vow to quit drugs and pimping forever. What about this loss of his first street buddy, his first con partner, causes Slim to question every life decision he has made?

Essay Topic 2

In spite of the fact that Slim owns a gun, a reasonably normal accessory for a pimp, he never kills anyone (though he does shoot Serena and attempts to shoot Steve) and very few of his associates are murdered or die by violence. Sweet Jones shoots and kills an unnamed man, though he escapes jail. Slim is shot at in the Roost but is not hurt. Henry Upshaw, Glass Top, Pretty Preston and Mama all die of various (though not necessarily unavoidable) natural causes. None of Slim's prostitutes ever is reported to die (even though Slim himself attempts to kill Runt). Slim's world is filled with anger, violence, danger, beatings, drugs, sex, prison stints and yet Slim's story is almost unaffected by traumatic deaths. Does this seem likely? Is this relative "purity" a fictional polish the author has put in the story? What other reasons might there be for this?

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast Steve and Slim's biological fathers. How are their influences on Slim's life and choices similar or different? Both will turn up again in Slim's life; how are those encounters different? How does Slim react to each encounter and how does he feel afterward?

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