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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. Which of the following is NOT among the new things that Allison buys in town?

2. What does Kitty ask Will to do?

3. Where are Allison's parents on their way to when they stop to visit her and Dr. Duk?

4. Why is Sirius Allison's favorite star?

5. According to the author, what claim to fame does Linwood, North Carolina have?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the story about the man who survives the plane crash mean to Allison?

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

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

4. What information does Allison's notebook contain?

5. What is it that Will Barrett realizes when he falls down during the golf game at the opening of the novel?

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

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

8. What is Will unhappy about during the game of golf with Ed Cupp, Bernie Peabody, Lewis Peckham, and Jimmy Rogers?

9. Why does Will choose Sutter Vaught to be the beneficiary of his life insurance?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Will often refers to the exodus of the Jews from North Carolina as a sign. How does Walker Percy use this motif in the novel? What does Will's fixation with the Jews signify in his personal life? What does it come to mean to the reader? Write an essay in which you discuss the motif and the ways in which the author uses the motif to develop Will's character.

Essay Topic 3

Like many novels set in small Southern towns, in The Second Coming the characters are constantly concerned about how others perceive them. Choose three characters from the novel and write an essay about how each deals with the issue of how others perceive them.

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