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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 did Hamper do during his vacation?

2. In general terms, how did Hamper feel as he drove away from GM for the last time?

3. Why did Hamper want to wear the Howie costume head?

4. Why did Hamper not want to write about being a shop-rat, in an article for the Flint Voice?

5. After four months on the Rivet Line, how did Hamper feel?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Hamper think when Janice came to work on the Rivet Line? How was his reaction different from the men around him and how might this be surprising?

2. What arrangement did Paul and Hamper scheme up at work? How did Hamper justify this, even to the point of making it appear right?

3. Why were Moore and Hamper summoned to appear in court? How does this scene demonstrate Hamper's chosen place in the world?

4. What was Hamper's opinion of the Flint Voice when he first read it? What expectations does this create in the reader's mind?

5. What was the purpose of Hamper's food matching game (pgs 78-79)? What effect does the game have to the writing of this scene?

6. What new vehicle was the factory hired to build? How was this, written in Hamper's account of life, a sign of the times?

7. In the Epilogue, Hamper shows the conflict between his mindset as a shop-rat and his time outside the factory in therapy. How did he show this and which attitude was stronger in his mind?

8. What kind of relationship did Gino have with his men? Why did this lead to his eventual transfer away from the Rivet Line?

9. What was Hamper's reaction to the news that Louise Mandrell had ordered a GM Suburban? How does this fit what the reader already knows about Hamper's personality?

10. What kind of supervisor was Gino? How did Hamper respond to his leadership?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How many women were involved in Hamper's life and what roles did they play? As seen by his relationships with Joanie and Janice, what were his attitudes toward women?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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

(see the answer keys)

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