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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. When Allison remembers her last visit with Dr. Duk, what does he tell her he wants to do?

2. What does Allison say woke her up?

3. What is Ed Cupp's relationship to Will Barrett?

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

5. How many cars are in the garage?

Short Essay Questions

1. What information does Allison's notebook contain?

2. Why does Will obsess over how many shots his father fired on the hunting trip they took together?

3. Why does Allison want to move the old stove into her greenhouse?

4. What kind of shady business proposition does Ewell McBee make to Will?

5. What does Jimmy Rogers do during the golf game to annoy Will?

6. What happens when Will gets home from the Sunday golf game and sits in his garage?

7. When does Will realize who Allison is?

8. What makes Allison feel like she needs to move quickly to get the stove into the greenhouse?

9. What is the trouble that the chaplain Jack Curl is having with Will's daughter, Leslie?

10. Why does Allison buy herself new clothes when she gets to Linwood?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Will's guns become important symbols that we as readers associate with him throughout the novel. Write an essay explaining the significance of each gun (the Luger, the Greener, and the Sterlingworth) and what each comes to mean individually, as well as what the guns represent collectively for Will. Why do you think Walker Percy chose these objects to associate with Will? Does the meaning change over time?

Essay Topic 2

Several of the characters in the novel are very religious; two are men of the cloth. Discuss the significance of religion in the novel. Does religion help shape the plot? Does it play a major role in the character development? What about the central conflict of the novel? Does religion play a role in that as well?

Essay Topic 3

The Second Coming is populated with a lot of single, older men. Discuss the role of the old men like Mr. Ryan, Mr. Arnold, and Father Weatherbee in the novel. What do you think these older men represent in the novel? Why are there so many of them? What happens to these old men in the end?

(see the answer keys)

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