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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 kind of car is Evelyn being chauffeured in as she goes around in New York?

2. What does Evelyn receive in her divorce settlement?

3. What is Father's great guilt?

4. What does The Boy think happens to people, animals, or objects in a motion picture?

5. After a second trial, what sentence does Harry K. Shaw receive?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is it that Evelyn Nesbit does not understand when she sees The Girl tied to her father?

2. How are Tateh and The Girl rescued from being separated?

3. What are the lead workers doing as Perry comes leisurely behind?

4. What infatuation comes over Mother's Younger brother?

5. What does The Boy recover from the trash?

6. What does Evelyn see when she goes with Tateh to a socialist meeting?

7. What is Mother's concern about Younger Brother?

8. What happens when Tateh is working in the Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts?

9. What does The Boy think bronze statues are?

10. How is Father sent off on his trip with the Perry expedition to the North Pole?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

On their trip out of New York, Tateh observes a completely different country from what he had known in New York. Doctorow says that for the first time Tateh began to think he might be able to live in America. Use examples of what Tateh and The Girl see on their trip that are so different from anything they had ever seen in New York and explain how those sights began to change Tateh's outlook on America. Then look at Freud's visit to New York and what they force him to go see. Give your opinion as to whether Freud might have had a different opinion of America if he had seen the more rural side of the country.

Essay Topic 2

Look up information of Theodore Dreiser and write about his impact on the American novel. It is interesting that Doctorow chooses Dreiser to put in his book. It might be a message about his own feelings about book critics. Dreiser was never recognized in his own time for the quality of his novels. Perhaps his most famous novel, AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, was made into a movie in the 1950s called A PLACE IN THE SUN. What is your opinion about why Doctorow chose this novelist to include briefly in RAGTIME.

Essay Topic 3

Gather information of President Howard Taft and write a short paper about him. Taft's rise to power corresponded with the turn of the century idea that obesity, especially in men, was a sign of material success. Taft weighed over 300 pounds and it is said that a special bathtub had to be installed in the White House to accommodate him. Your paper should include characters in the book as examples of men who fit that accepted image of success. By contrast Houdini and Younger Brother are of athletic build and represent change in the novel. Explain.

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