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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. When Matt goes to the Indian village for Attean and does not find Attean, who does Matt ask for?

2. What is the next book that Matt has to get his adventures from?

3. As Matt and Attean take leave of each other, who does Matt say he would like Attean's grandfather to meet?

4. What does Matt say that he thought of the Indian way of life before he actually visited them?

5. What does Attean bring Matt for breakfast on the morning after the celebration?

Short Essay Questions

1. After a day of hard play in the Indian village, Matt is physically sore but content. Explain these two apparently contradicting feelings.

2. Matt gets considerable reassurance of his acceptance in Chapter 22 when Attean renews his invitation to Matt to join them to find a new hunting ground. How does Matt's response please and simultaneously disappoint Attean?

3. How does Saknis receive Matt's declining the invitation to go on the hunt with his people?

4. How does such a violent act as killing a bear bring Matt and Attean into a relationship that for the first time seems like a friendship?

5. How is Matt and Attean's use of each other's language symbolic of their relationship?

6. How does the celebration of the bear kill at Attean's village actually work to lessen friction over cultural differences?

7. How is Matt's acceptance of the manitou indicative of his growing respect for the Indian culture?

8. How does Matt's reaction to the cleanup being relegated to squaws indicate that he is more accepting of cultural differences?

9. Why is it ironic that Matt wonders how the Great Spirit that the Indians worship seem to be like the Indians themselves--i.e. a mighty hunter, very strong?

10. What evidence is there that Matt's relationship with the Indians fulfilled a familial longing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the beginning of The Sign of the Beaver, Matt is a child in his father's care. Although he has learned the lessons his father and his parents have taught him, discuss the immature side of Matt and give examples of his behaviors or early relations with people that suggest that he is still a child.

Essay Topic 2

Attean does not seem to understand Matt's concept of land ownership and he dismisses treaties that his people had with the white men as worthless. How then does he come to have a different opinion of the markings that tribes put on trees to designate their hunting grounds. How is this concept different from the ownership Matt understands?

Essay Topic 3

Matt and Attean tell each other stories. Explain the importance of their knowing each other's stories and extend this by explaining the importance of people knowing the stories (such as the tales, the fables, the myths) of other cultures.

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