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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 does Will say when Jack suggests that he take up railroading?

2. What does Allison assure Dr. Vance when she tells him that Will is at her place?

3. How old was Will when we went on the cross country trip with his father?

4. What happens when the hiker puts his hand on Allison's thigh?

5. Will thinks that you don't actually learn anything in life that you didn't already know at what age?

Short Essay Questions

1. What forces Will to leave the cave?

2. What makes Allison feel like she needs another person in her life?

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

4. How does Allison find Will?

5. When Will is thinking things over in his Mercedes, what does he decide the name of the century should be?

6. Where does Will take Allison when they leave the greenhouse?

7. What skills do the three old guys who Will befriends in the convalescent home possess?

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

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

10. What is the first thing Kitty says after Will recognizes her when she wakes him up in his car in the parking lot?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do you think the title, The Second Coming signifies? Write an essay explaining what you think the author is referring to in the title, providing examples from the text to support your thesis.

Essay Topic 2

Will and Allison are both attuned to nature, noticing clouds, grass, trees, birds, ants, and so on, throughout the course of the novel. Discuss Walker Percy's use of nature in the novel and how the appreciation of nature contributes to Will and Allison's characters.

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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