View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What errand does Will ask Allison to do that she's nervous about?

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

3. What nickname does Will give his father when he is talking to him in his head?

4. What does Kitty think is wrong with Allison?

5. What time of day is hard for Allison?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Where has Will's daughter, Leslie, moved while he has been away at the cave and the greenhouse?

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

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

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 2

Write an essay discussing what Will is searching for in the novel The Second Coming. Use examples from the text to support your thesis. Is he searching for God, for love, for meaning, for a purpose, or something else entirely?

Essay Topic 3

Money can't buy happiness, but as some of the characters in the novel show, it can certainly buy other things. Discuss the theme of wealth in the novel, using Will, Allison, and Jack Curl to show how their different attitudes towards money provide different perspectives in the novel. Provide specific examples from the text to support your argument.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 667 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample