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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. From where does the North Pole expedition set off?
2. What happens with Tateh and his little girl after they left the Goldman lecture?
3. What does Father present to commander Perry before he heads out to the North Pole?
4. Where is the train headed?
5. What happens when a woman striker is shot?
Short Essay Questions
1. What does the Franklin Novelty Company do with Tateh's books?
2. Who are the famous psychologists who visit New York at this time and what is their reaction?
3. What does The Boy think bronze statues are?
4. How do the second generation Irish feel about the new immigrants?
5. What are the lead workers doing as Perry comes leisurely behind?
6. What is the nature of Evelyn's testimony in Harry's trial?
7. What is Evelyn doing with Younger Brother after Tateh and The girl leave?
8. Why does socialite Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish bring Houdini and circus freaks to her house?
9. What becomes the fashion among the rich in turn of the century America?
10. Why is Houdini thrown out of Bellevue Hospital?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Write about Harry Houdini's fixation on finding a way to communicate with his dead mother. The attachment of Houdini to his mother is a documented fact. He also spent the rest of his life looking for someone who could make contact with the dead. In the process he became an authority on fakes and charlatans who claimed special powers to channel the dead. In your paper, explain why you think Doctorow used Houdini as a major character in the book? Point out the societal changes that were happening at that time that Houdini symbolizes.
Essay Topic 2
Look up information of minstrel shows which were popular in America from the late 1800s through the 1930s. Describe them and give your opinion about them as entertainment. Even Scott Joplin performed in minstrel shows during his lifetime. Al Jolson, a Jewish man, became famous blacking his face and performing in minstrels. It was of course a demeaning representation of black people as a whole and contributed to the stereotype of the race that went on into the movies until the late 1950s. Discuss how much you think such entertainments delayed the civil rights movement in America.
Essay Topic 3
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.
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This section contains 699 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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