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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 do the boy's parents suggest he should have done instead of involving Sergeant Burke when he was being bullied?

2. What does "The Shan Van Vocht" mean?

3. What makes the boy feel distinctly uncomfortable in Chapter 1?

4. What happens that lets the boy know his father isn't upset anymore about the rose bushes?

5. In June 1948, what does the boy witness?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the motif of fire used in Chapter 3?

2. Describe Grianan.

3. How is the novel The Shan Van Vocht an example of female symbolism?

4. Why is Una's death seen as an outlet for the boy's mother?

5. How can we see in Chapter 2 that the belief in the supernatural is a powerful force in Northern Ireland during this time?

6. Why doesn't the author ever reveal the narrator's first name?

7. Describe the narrator.

8. What happens to Frances and Francis?

9. When the boy's father takes him and his brother Liam out on the boat, what does his father reveal to them and why does it make the boy feel uncomfortable?

10. What happens to Larry McLaughlin?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the boy's mother and father.

1.) How are they different in their treatments of the boy? How are they same?

2.) What parts of the family secret does each of them know?

3.) How do their behaviors change over the course of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

There are several symbols discussed in the novel. Discuss the use and meaning of disappearance, death, fire, and tradition.

Essay Topic 3

If this story had happened in America, how might it change? What details would be different? What historical events in America might have affected the story? How might the characters behave differently?

(see the answer keys)

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