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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. How does Allison think she can make a living?

2. Who shoots the bird on the hunting trip?

3. What kind of car does Will Barrett drive?

4. What is the business that Ewell McBee wants Will to invest in?

5. What does Allison need two of that she purchases for $7.95 each?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the self-discovery that Allison makes before she goes to Linwood?

2. What is the first time Will Barrett's deceased wife is mentioned?

3. What does Allison talk to the man in the garage of Washau Motors about?

4. Why doesn't Will do anything about the poacher on his land?

5. How does Allison get the large iron cook stove into the greenhouse?

6. How does Allison find out where her aunt's estate is?

7. Why does Allison refuse Will's help in moving the stove?

8. What restores the "missing ninety-eight percent" of Will's personality?

9. What happens when Will enters the greenhouse on his second visit?

10. What happy discovery does Allison make when she gets the stove out of the cellar?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

One of Walker Percy's main themes in the novel The Second Coming is identity. Discuss how the characters in the novel deal with their identities, using at least two characters to compare and contrast. Provide specific examples from the text to support your discussion.

Essay Topic 2

In the novel, Allison has lost her memory because of the treatments she received at the mental institution and Will has repressed some troubling memories from his childhood that keep returning to him when he has his spells. Write an essay discussing the theme of memory from the novel, comparing and contrasting how different characters' memories shape the plot and affect how we as a reader react to those characters.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the novel, the narrator's perspective changes. Discuss how Walker Percy uses narration to help shape his novel. Is it first person or third person narration? Who seems to be the main focus of the novel? How does the perspective shift? Is the narrator sympathetic to the main characters?

(see the answer keys)

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