View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In which class do the boys discuss the speech given by the army chaplain?

2. What happens to the boy's mother in 1968?

3. What does Katie's sister tell her that upsets her?

4. What is wrong about the boy taking Irene to the cinema?

5. In what year does the boy enter university?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the boy's evening with Irene prove to be a disappointment?

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

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

4. What does the boy recall about "unconditional love"?

5. In what ways are the problems of Northern Ireland just beginning as the problems the boy faces are now ending?

6. What does Sergeant Burke reveal about Eddie's death and Tony's involvement?

7. Why is the boy again upset with his mother at the end of Chapter 5?

8. What causes the boy to realize his mother doesn't care what he reveals to anyone?

9. What happens to Jimmy and Claire?

10. What does the boy believe about his loyalties to his parents as he sets off to college?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which characters in the novel would be considered guides for the boy narrator? What do they teach him? Are they positive or negative mentors?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 679 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample