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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 is the one part about her new life in the greenhouse that Allison doesn't like?

2. Why does Allison think she should work with comatose patients?

3. What drug does Will have to take to keep him stable?

4. When they leave the greenhouse, what does Will realize he doesn't have?

5. What does Will want to do when he leaves the country club parking lot?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What forces Will to leave the cave?

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

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

6. What happens to Will's guns at the end of the novel?

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

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

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

10. How does Allison feel about doing the errands that Will asks her to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Walker Percy revisits several themes or motifs throughout the novel including: memory, mental illness, self-discovery, independence, religion, nature, and love. Can you think of other themes or motifs from the novel? Write an essay discussing the most important theme or motif from the novel; that is, the one you think the author discusses the most or seems to feature as being the most important. Provide examples from the text to support your argument.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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