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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 was Freud's judgment about America?

2. What plea does Shaw's mother want him to make in court but he flatly refuses?

3. What happens when the American Woolen Company gives out envelopes with short pay?

4. What do Mother, The Boy, and Younger Brother do in the winter time?

5. What happens when Tateh is beaten by the police and the train The Girl is on starts to move?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What are Tateh's plans for him and The Girl as they leave New York?

3. What sight as they sail out of New York Harbor depresses Father?

4. What is the nature of Evelyn's testimony in Harry's trial?

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

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

7. What is Perry's attitude towards the Esquimo people?

8. Why is Houdini thrown out of Bellevue Hospital?

9. What does The Boy recover from the trash?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Write your opinion of E. L. Doctorow's writing style. Include such things as his omitting quotation marks and writing in very short sentences. Cite specific passages in the novel that you think either did or did not convey (1) the feeling of the characters, (2) the imagery of the day, (3) the suspense of the plot, or any other concept you feel the novel addresses. How much does Doctorow's use of fictionalized real characters add to the interest of the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Coalhouse Walker, Jr., plays Scott Joplin ragtime in the novel. Do some research and write a brief paper about the composer Scott Joplin. Why does Doctorow use the musical genre as the title of his book? To what extent do you think the music of an era defines that era?

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