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. When did Hamper's great-grandfather begin working in the car factory?

2. What did Hamper do when people criticized him for drinking on the job?

3. What did Hamper's mom hope he'd do once he finished high school?

4. During his sophomore year of high school, what did Hamper name his rather large collection of poems?

5. During his first day of work, before he learned Roy's name, what nickname did Hamper give him?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who or what was Hamper's greatest enemy at work? How did he use his new attitude about work to combat the enemy?

2. What story does Hamper tell involving Lesley Gore's music? How does this story show that Hamper, if only for an hour and twelve minutes, transcended the shop-rat mindset?

3. How did poetry temporarily draw Hamper out of his slide toward the factory? How might this have paved the way for more writing in the future?

4. At the end of Chapter 4, Hamper reveals his place in the present time and lets the reader know that the events took place some nine years before he wrote about them. What effect does this have on the reader's perception of the book?

5. How does Hamper describe the Cab Shop the first time he goes there? What about the description is the most informative about the scene?

6. What promises did the Plant Manager make during the factory meeting? How did Hamper's retelling of the speech change its tone?

7. "I'm thinking that rock stars, even dead ones, don't come cheap" (pg xix). In the context of the Prologue, what does this quote mean?

8. What did Hamper say about his younger siblings? How did this give the reader another glimpse of family life?

9. How is Hamper's portrayal of his mother pathetic at times? Is it a fair character description?

10. What do Hamper's stories about high school revolve around? How does this show that he was giving in to the nuns' perception of him that began in junior high?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 5, Hamper recounts the behaviors and antics of several of his coworkers. What makes these stories funny? How does Hamper choose words and phrases to emphasize the humor of the stories?

Essay Topic 2

Hamper often describes a small section of his surroundings - his parents' couch, his workbench, Mark's Lounge - but rarely a larger scene such as the city of Flint. What does this say about the scope of his world? How often did he take in the larger scene compared to how often he was focused simply on the task ahead of him?

Essay Topic 3

How did Roy's crackup prefigure Hamper's own mental breakdown? What role did Hamper play on Roy's story, and how did Roy's compare to his own?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,808 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample