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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. Who dared nine-year-old Ben Mears to go inside Marsten House?

2. Where does Matt invite Mike to spend the night?

3. Who tells Floyd Tibbits about the thing Mike Ryerson found when he got to work that morning?

4. Who sold the Marsten House?

5. Why does Ben think this person is not dead, but simply sleeping?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who becomes convinced that Danny's eyes are open in his coffin? What does he do about it?

2. What is unusual about the format of Chapter 3?

3. What takes place in Harmony Hill Cemetery at midnight on the day depicted in Chapter 3?

4. What does Hank Peters see in the Marsten cellar that he discusses with Larry Crockett?

5. Which children go missing in Chapter 4? Who sounds the alarm?

6. Who does Matt run into at Dell's on Thursday night?

7. Why does Matt call Ben in the middle of the night? What does he ask him to bring?

8. What do Ben and Matt discuss over dinner in Chapter 7?

9. To whom does the boy make a confession?

10. What does Mr. Glick demand Danny do during the funeral for Danny Glick?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Susan Norton. Who is Susan? What is her education level? What is her relationship with her mother like? Why do Susan and her mother fight often through the course of the novel? What is Susan's relationship like with her father? How does this contrast with her relationship with her mother? Who is Susan dating when the novel begins? How does this relationship change through the course of the novel? Why? What does this change say about Susan's character?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the fire of 1951. How did it begin? What was lost? Who fought it? What does it say about the town of Jerusalem's Lot? What does this fire represent by the end of the novel? Why does Ben recall this fire when he and Mark return to Jerusalem's Lot? Why does Ben begin another fire? How are the two fires alike? How are they different? What does fire symbolize in this novel?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Jerusalem's Lot. What is this town like in the beginning of the novel? Compare and contrast Jerusalem's Lot to other towns in the country, or to your hometown. How is Jerusalem's Lot like any other American city? How is it different? What changes in Jerusalem's Lot over the course of the novel? What made Jerusalem's Lot vulnerable to this change? Is Jerusalem's Lot unique in this vulnerability? Could something like this happen in your hometown? Why or why not?

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