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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 does Lila teach her children to do?

2. Which of the following is NOT true about the traumatic memory from the Wingo childhood?

3. Tom's mother often made up stories about _____________.

4. How does Luke respond to the tiger's presence?

5. What does Tom say that Grandmother Tolitha did immediately following Papa John's death?

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you describe Lila Wingo?

2. Why does Henry covert to Catholicism?

3. What does the story of Lila's quest to win the Colleton League cookbook contest reveal about her character?

4. How does Lila react to Henry's buying a tiger?

5. How does Dr. Lowenstein perceive Lila in Chapter Six?

6. How does the fury of the storm echo the plight of Lila Wingo?

7. What does Luke pray for before his father leaves for Korea?

8. Why does Tom punch Todd Newbury, and what does this reveal or suggest about Tom?

9. How does Lila react to the news of Tom's actions against Todd?

10. Why does Tom feel the fallow deer are out of place in the Central Park Zoo?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In 1906, George Santayana penned the famous line, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (from "The Life of Reason"). Does Conroy's novel support or refute this assertion?

Write a critical lens essay in which you interpret Santayana's quote, agree or disagree with the quotation as you have interpreted it, and provide evidence in the form of specific literary techniques from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

The essence of any drama, especially the Wingo family drama, is conflict. Choose ONE of the following characters and discuss the major conflicts and obstacles he or she seeks to overcome throughout the novel. Does he or she succeed? What is the prevailing conflict in his or her path to healing? How does the struggle and tension produced by this conflict change this character?

A.) Tom.

B.) Luke.

C.) Savannah.

D.) Lila.

E.) Susan.

F.) Henry.

Essay Topic 3

In the final image of the novel, we see the Wingo family (minus Luke) reunited on a shrimping boat, much as they were in the novel's opening. Do you think the Wingo family has overcome its traumatic past and finally begun to heal?

Write a persuasive essay that develops your point of view on this topic. Be sure to use specific and sound reasoning from the text to support your position.

(see the answer keys)

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