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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. Why is the city to where the British are moving important?

2. Where is McCandless taken?

3. What is chained in the courtyard where McCandless is standing?

4. What type of weapon is Hakeswill carrying?

5. What does McCandless say to Sharpe?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the outcome of Sharpe's court-martial and what does Sergeant Green do for Sharpe?

2. What nationality is Mary and what do she and Sharpe talk about when he joins her after the battle? To whom was Mary married when she became a widow?

3. How does Tippoo execute two men?

4. Where do the lancers take Lawford and Sharpe and what do the two men see as they enter there?

5. How is Sharpe's punishment carried out and how does it stop?

6. Where do the deserters spend their first night, who interrogates them and what do they see in the courtyard the next morning?

7. How does Hakeswill get Sharpe arrested for a court-martial?

8. How do the other officers feel about Lawford suggesting Sharpe accompany him on the mission?

9. What is Hakeswill thinking about as he is looking for money and what does he do about a dying soldier who has money taped to his chest?

10. When do Lawford and Sharpe depart, who joins them and why does Sharpe take charge of the mission?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Oftentimes, a book is more of a character-driven plot rather than action driven, and oftentimes the other way. Some books seem to balance the two. Discuss the following:

1. What do you think it means to say that a plot is character driven? Action driven?

2. How do you think a plot differs if it is character driven versus action driven?

3. Which type of plot do you find more interesting? Why?

4. Do you think it is possible to have a plot where action and character development share equal time? Why or why not.

5. What type of plot do you think Sharpe's Tiger is? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 2

Cornwell is masterful in his description of battles and life in general for a soldier during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about life as a soldier. How does he use descriptions of the five senses to make the reader feel s/he is there? Do you find his descriptions compelling? Seemingly accurate? How would "Sharpe's Tiger" be different if Cornwell did not include such descriptive passages?

2. Analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about the social structure of the times and discuss what you think it would be like to be a person of wealth and/or privilege such as Wellington? Contrast that to the lives of those who are in a lower social strata such as Sharpe, Mary or Hakeswill.

3. Describe and analyze Cornwell's descriptive passages about the topographical setting and the physical descriptions of the people. Does Cornwell do an adequate job of actually making the reader "see" the land where the action is taking place? How about getting a visual image of the characters? How does the descriptions of the setting add to the novel? Do you like having an idea of how a character looks? How would the novel be different without such descriptions?

Essay Topic 3

Many events that happen in "Sharpe's Tiger" are foreshadowed by previous events and/or signs. Discuss the following:

1. Define the literary term "foreshadow."

2. Why would an author use foreshadowing? Do you think it adds or detracts from your experience as a reader? Explain.

3. Trace and analyze three instances of foreshadowing in "Sharpe's Tiger". Match up what is mentioned earlier and what it foreshadows. Did you guess that each instance of foreshadowing was a "heads up" of something to come? Why or why not.

(see the answer keys)

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