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. Why did Hamper and Mike come to hate their fathers?

2. What did Roy eventually do to his pet mouse?

3. What job did Hamper get after he quit painting?

4. At the beginning of Chapter Three, what reason did Hamper give that Joanie was unhappy in their marriage?

5. Oftentimes, when was a woman placed on the assembly line?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Hamper's description of Flint, Michigan, at the beginning of Chapter 2, a powerful one?

2. What religious background did Hamper have during his childhood? How did religion shape his move into adulthood?

3. What kind of person was Joanie? Use Hamper's references to her to create a character description.

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. What is Hamper's first exposure to the true culture of the Cab Shop? How did this dramatically change his attitude toward work?

6. 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?

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

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

9. "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?

10. Who were Lightnin' and Same-O? What did their lives say about Hamper's future?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How was Hamper involved in writing throughout the course of his life? How did his attitude toward it change?

Essay Topic 2

"My old man abhorred the truth. It was like some horrible, foreign diction that ripped at his core" (pg 4). What truth is Hamper referring to? As demonstrated by his own life, what was his reaction to the same truth?

Essay Topic 3

When did Hamper's job as a riveter because an identity as the Rivethead? How did he live out this identity? What impact did it have for his future?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,785 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample