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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. An army chaplain comes to the school to talk to the boys about what?

2. Where does Charlie McCabe frequent?

3. What happens to the boy's mother after she stops taking the medicine?

4. In what year does the boy enter university?

5. In what language does the boy write the final copy?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the boy conclude that it was his mother who tipped off McIlhenny?

2. Why does Sergeant Burke say he beat up Frank and why does he apologize for it?

3. The boy's mother is saddened throughout the entire novel, but why does her depression set in after her grandfather dies?

4. Why is Crazy Joe such a valuable character to the story of Eddie's disappearance and death?

5. Describe the relationship between Tony, Katie, and the boy's mother.

6. Why does the boy's mother begin to treat him unkindly?

7. What scripture passages does the boy enjoy reading, but why do they trouble him?

8. What does the boy's mother say that upsets Katie?

9. Why does the boy's mother turn hostile toward him in Chapter 6?

10. Who is Danno Bredin?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Good vs. evil is an important theme in the novel. Show how three characters made the wrong decision in regards to Eddie's death and explain what they should have done differently.

Essay Topic 2

Foreshadowing is used multiple times in the novel. Cite three examples and show how they are used to indicate events that will happen later in the novel.

Essay Topic 3

If you were the boy narrator, would you have kept the information you found out about Eddie's death a secret? The boy narrator does not reveal to his mother what he knows; would you have done the same? What might have changed if the boy had told his mother what he knew?

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