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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. Whose phone call disrupts the harmony of the opening scene?

2. What does Lila do after finding Savannah's journal?

3. How much time has passed since Tom and Luke went to visit their sister in New York?

4. What is Dr. Lowenstein's reaction to Tom telling the story about Todd Newbury?

5. Why does Henry buy the tiger from the circus?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't Lila want the children to tell their father about the man called "Callanwolde"?

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

3. What is the topic of Savannah's poetry?

4. How does Lila feel about Henry's profession as a shrimper?

5. Why does Henry covert to Catholicism?

6. What is the significance of the game Tom plays with his daughters?

7. What kind of family does the Prologue portray?

8. How do the Wingo children get revenge on the Newburys?

9. How does the death of Rose Ann reveal the nature of the Wingo parents?

10. Why does Tom suggest that football is a good thing for the unhappy Bernard?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Tom says that growing up as a Wingo taught him to survive. Savannah tends to disagree. Of the three Wingo children, which emerges the strongest? Whose character and psyche survive the trials and traumas of this dysfunctional family? Support your position with clear and logical evidence from the text.

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 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.

(see the answer keys)

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