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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. Where is Billy?

2. What does Shorty have inside a snuff can?

3. Who do many people in the canyon area speculate the old man is who found the diamond case?

4. What makes Billy open up to Joanna?

5. What do the cops find at the motel where Chandler is supposed to be?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the two characters introduced in Chapter 3 contrast with each other?

2. Do you think Louisa's condemnation of the modern pollution of ancient myths is totally logical?

3. What does the telephone conversation between Bernie and Chee say about their relationship?

4. What story does Shorty tell that is the motivation for the setting moving to the floor of the Grand Canyon?

5. What allusion to the allegory of Cat story is contained in Chapter 13?

6. At this point in the story, do you believe it when Joanna says that she seeks only her father's arm to end his pain in the afterlife and is not interested in the diamonds?

7. What does Joanna say that gains Billy Tuve's attention and why?

8. When you read that the bail has been suspended for Billy Tuve and why, what is your reaction?

9. How does the author introduce the Navajo setting and a little of their philosophy?

10. What in this chapter may foreshadow a future event?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Chapter 13 gives the readers an astonishing view of Joanna Craig when she shoots Sherman in cold blood. Answer the following questions by writing a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Does Joanna's action of shooting Sherman come as a surprise? Why or why not? Do you think the action is justified? Do you think she can be held legally responsible?

2. What would you have done in Joanna's place? The same thing? Something different? Do you think Joanna intended to kill Sherman?

3. Sherman recovers from his gunshot wound and is unwilling to say who shoots him. Why do you think he does this? Is it merely chauvinism as Joe suggests? Since Sherman refuses to point the finger at Joanne, she gets off scot free. Is this fair? Are you glad or outraged? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 12, Louisa says she heard many new myths mixed with the old ones, about bodies and things falling out of the sky from the plane collision. She notes that such modern "contamination" of ancient myths is the bane of anthropologists everywhere. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. What are some of the Hopi and Navajo myths and how do they attempt to explain situations in the lives of the Native Americans?

2. Does the white American culture have its own myths? What's the difference between a myth and an urban legend? Why are there not perhaps as many myths in white culture as in the Native American culture? Do you think cultures who are not Christian see the story of Jesus as a myth?

3. Does your family have any of its own myths? Sometimes an anecdote that is old enough takes on the proportions of a myth. Are there any such anecdotes in your family history that has done so? What about in your community? Are myths necessary in this modern world?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 9, Chee is reflecting on his past, particularly upon his past romantic relationships. A story he things about concerns "Cat," a domesticated cat. The story about Cat might be considered an allegory. Answer the following questions by writing a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. What is an allegory? What is the purpose of the Cat allegory?

2. Why do you think an author might use an allegory to express a concept or idea? Do you think the Cat allegory is effective?

3. Are there any other allegories in the novel? What about the story Sam Pinto tells in Chapter 1? Could this be an allegory about how the white man has ruined the environment?

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