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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 time of day is hard for Allison?

2. How does Kitty find Will sleeping in his car?

3. What is the morning movie the day that Will leave to go find Allison?

4. How much money does Will tell Allison that he has?

5. What fruit does Allison tell Will she has just been eating when he arrives?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened to the tiger skeleton that used to be in the cave?

2. Why does Will get into a fight with Kitty at the nursing home?

3. What plan do Allison and Will make for their futures?

4. What psychological breakthrough does Will make as he sits in his car thinking?

5. What are the two things that Will has to tell Allison when he returns to the greenhouse?

6. What does Will dream that the country club becomes in the future while he is sleeping in his car?

7. What news does Kitty tell Will about her family when they talk in the parking lot of the country club?

8. What does Allison enjoy about taking care of Will that makes her think she should nurse comatose patients?

9. What does Will take with him into the cave?

10. When Will sees himself in the mirror of his Mercedes after leaving the greenhouse, what does he think he looks like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Will and Allison both have epiphanies in the beginning of the novel, each realizing something important about life that will shape how that character reacts throughout the rest of the novel. Write an essay in which you discuss what Will and Allison each discover about life and how each character's discovery affects his or her relationships throughout the rest of the novel.

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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