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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 two different personalities did Hank exhibit?

2. What was the supervisor's reaction when Hamper and Paul doubled up their jobs?

3. What was Dave's attitude toward humanity?

4. When Hamper had to go into corporate offices to request Alex's visitor pass, why was he nervous?

5. Approximately how long was Hamper unemployed before being called back to work?

Short Essay Questions

1. What difficulty did Hamper run into as he tried to get a visitor's pass for Alex Kotlowitz, the reporter from the Wall Street Journal? How does this difficulty illustrate the vast difference between the factory worker and the corporate man, even within the same company?

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

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

4. During and after his first panic attack, what did Hamper realize about himself?

5. 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?

6. What was one of Hamper's favorite ways to pass time at work? How is this an interesting facet of his character?

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

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

9. Who did Bob-A-Lou have a crush on? What does this reveal about his character and how was he different from most of the other factory workers?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

What effect did unemployment have on Flint? What happened when much of the population was unemployed and why? What do you think the mood of the town was?

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?

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