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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 do Crab and Jimmy arrive?

2. What does Jimmy think about instead of his father?

3. Does Jimmy keep the fact that he made a phone call secret?

4. How does the narrator characterize the area where Jimmy wakes up?

5. Where do Crab and Jimmy go after this visit?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jimmy find out that Crab is sick?

2. Where does Jimmy go to collect Crab, and how do they pass the night?

3. What do Crab and Jimmy do in the morning?

4. Where do Crab and Jimmy stay in Chicago?

5. What does Crab tell Jimmy about his own father?

6. What had Crab's plan for the night been?

7. Where do Crab and Jimmy go after the diner?

8. What happens to Crab and Jimmy on their way out of Chicago?

9. What does Crab ask Jimmy to say when he calls Rydell?

10. Describe Crab's interaction with Frank.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is "Somewhere in the Darkness" a quest novel, or just a novel about characters who wander around? In what way is it either one, or both? Does the fact that Crab does not accomplish his mission affect the nature of the book?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the conflict between Jimmy's desires and his father's desires. What does Jimmy want to know, as opposed to his father wanting him to know the truth about his arrest? How does the conflict make each character's desires clearer to them? How are they reconciled?

Essay Topic 3

Crab's illness makes it impossible for him to play more than an episodic role in Jimmy's life. How else does his illness figure in the book? Is it a symbol or a metaphor? What does it symbolize? What clues does the author give us, that Crab's illness might mean more than just his individual sickness?

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This section contains 514 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample