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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. What are Dick's plans to get more money to continue finishing his boat?

2. What does Parker call Dick?

3. Why does Dick feel so low after securing a loan to finish his boat?

4. What is attached to the harpooned fish that allows the fishermen to follow it in the water?

5. What is Dick's mood regarding the loan to finish his boat?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Dick's internal conflict about working for others to get the funds necessary to finish his boat?

2. How does Dick's attraction to Elsie begin?

3. What is revealed about Dick's personality in Chapter 2 when he and his sons dig for illegal clams in the bird sanctuary?

4. Explain Dick's thoughts as he begins to understand the complications of the drug smuggling situation with Parker.

5. What is the Neptune?

6. How does Dick know that Elsie had been in the patrol boat the night before when he and Parker were trying to complete the drug deal?

7. What is revealed about Dick's leadership skills on the documentary trip?

8. What is Dick's employment pattern and how does he plan to make money to finish his boat?

9. What does Parker's cunning behavior begin to signify?

10. How does the author use irony in the scenario on the dock with the cops and the drug-sniffing dog?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Casey uses more than one instance of irony in the book. Cite at least two examples you can identify in the novel and note why they are examples of irony.

Essay Topic 2

Describe the overall setting for the novel. Why does Casey use the setting he does? What is the time period of the story? How important is the time period to the attitudes and issues of the characters?

Essay Topic 3

Striving takes on an almost human persona in this story. What is this literary technique called? Cite examples that support this position.

(see the answer keys)

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