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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 priest planning to go after he leaves the village?

2. How far away is the Yankee when the priest sends the guide and mules back?

3. Why do the priest and the lieutenant re-enter the hut with the now dead Yankee?

4. What does the priest admit in the prison?

5. What information dismays the priest?

Short Essay Questions

1. Notwithstanding the civility that had transpired between the lieutenant and the priest, how does the lieutenant behave at the execution?

2. Thinking everything is finished for him, what does the priest say to people inside the cell?

3. What transpires inside the hut where the Yankee is dying?

4. Describe the kindness of the lieutenant after telling the priest that he was found guilty at the trial and will be shot tomorrow.

5. Describe how the meeting between the lieutenant and the priest shows a different side of both men.

6. While Mr. Trench is in the Police Chief's office, what does he witness?

7. What transpires between the priest and the mestizo inside the jail?

8. What is going on between Mr. and Mrs. Fellows in the hotel room?

9. How does the mestizo give himself away to the priest?

10. Why does the Indian woman follow the priest as he leaves the next day?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

There are several layers to the character of the lieutenant. Much of his inner motivation is left up to the imagination of the reader. One thing is made clear, his resentment goes back to his childhood. Write a paper in which you surmise what it was that happened to him as a child to make him so resentful of the Church as an adult.

Essay Topic 3

Write a paper about the mestizo as a personification of Satan. Use examples of his physical description and his cunning ways to show how he, and not the lieutenant, is the representation of pure evil in the novel. Include the interaction between him and the priest to show how he was able to use the priest's deep seated faith to work against him.

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