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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Janice decide will help her fall asleep?

2. What is the name of the nun at the front desk of the ER?

3. What is Harry doing when he finally cries?

4. Janice tells Rabbit she has lost what body part?

5. Of what playground item is Nelson afraid?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the theme of forgiveness in the novel. Harry Angstrom is constantly relying upon the willingness of people around him to forgive him his transgressions. Who refuses this forgiveness? Who is willing to give him more leeway, and how does he repay this good faith? Do people who forgive him in the novel seem naive? To what extent does the world consider Harry an exception?

Essay Topic 2

The novel is largely told from Harry Angstrom's point of view, and much of his time is spent contending with the women in his life. Write an essay on Harry's ambivalent attitude toward women in three parts:

Part 1) What does Janice Angstrom represent to her husband throughout the novel? Why are they continually at odds with each other? What does Harry actually like about his wife?

Part 2) On of the strangest and most dangerous relationships that Harry has is with Lucy Eccles What is so precarious about their interactions? What do they seem to want from each other, and what stands in the way of this?

Part 3) To what extend is Ruth Leonard a happy medium for Harry between his wife and someone like Lucy Eccles? Why is he so happy for the time he is with her? What destroys this happiness?

Essay Topic 3

Updike's novel is the story of a man unable to commit to any way of life for fear that a better option exists somewhere else. Write an essay about this fear, focusing on three of Rabbit's frantic flights:

Part 1) At the beginning of the novel, Rabbit abruptly abandons his family to drive south. What is he hoping to find on this journey? Why does it fail? How does Rabbit's interaction with a gas station attendant portend this failure?

Part 2) Why does Rabbit decide to leave Ruth? What does he think he leaves behind with this abandonment? What does he leave behind in reality?

Part 3) The final pages of Rabbit, Run contain a frantic flight in all directions for the protagonist. What is he trying to escape? How do neither of his two homes contain this goal? Where is Rabbit left at the end of the novel?

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This section contains 454 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample