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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 the Police Chief's concern?

2. What does the mestizo tell the priest?

3. What is the deadline for catching the priest?

4. What is Greene's contrast between the two priests in the story?

5. When Captain Fellows goes to the barn to find the priest, what does he say?

Short Essay Questions

1. In chapter two, how does Greene establish a deep-seated religious faith on the part of common citizens?

2. Who comes knocking at the door and what does he want?

3. Why is he not welcome in his home town?

4. What is the pathetic scene that occurs just as he leaves the village.

5. Why has the priest come to the capital city where he sees the mestizo talking with the police?

6. How does Captain Fellows present ambivalent feelings about the priest?

7. After the priest on his mule crosses the river, what happens that is cause for alarm?

8. Describe the condition of Father José at that time.

9. Describe the characters of the Police Chief and the lieutenant as seen in the cantina.

10. Why does Mr. Trench invite the man into his house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A main theme of the novel is the inner struggle of the priest. Write a paper explaining how Greene uses the priest's weaknesses to demonstrate his real strengths. In your paper, discuss the importance of self forgiveness considering that all people make mistakes in their lives.

Essay Topic 2

Greene does not give names to the main characters in the novel, but he does name minor characters. How does that literary technique prevent the novel from being a simple tale of survival and give it a much larger message? To write this paper, you will need to cite instances where people are named and why that makes the story more real. You will also need to explain how not giving names to the central characters helps to make them symbolic of a much larger conflict.

Essay Topic 3

Write a paper on how early childhood influences one for the rest of one's life. Begin with the priest's recollection that his had been a happy childhood except that he had been afraid of too many things and hated poverty above all. The fear of poverty had motivated him to his vocation, but unlike Father José, he learned a higher motivation. Relate his experience with your own or that of someone you know.

(see the answer keys)

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