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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. How does Skink respond when Max asks him if he is ever letting Max go?

2. What do Edie and Snapper bring with them to Tony's house?

3. What does Bonnie learn from the little boy with the bike?

4. Towards the end of Chapter 7, Skink gives Max a long shock. What makes him so angry at Max?

5. Why does Bonnie wake up screaming?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way is it correct that Jim Tile worries about Skink?

2. What kind of a character is Augustine? Please support your answer with evidence from the book.

3. How do Bonnie's responses to Augustine show that she has feelings for her husband and an understanding of who he is?

4. How does the way in which Tony treats Edie in Chapter 6 make the ending of the chapter more satisfactory to the reader?

5. How does the weather create conflict in Chapter 1?

6. What does the reader learn of Augustine's background that leads to him being a more dynamic character?

7. How is the relationship between Augustine and Bonnie progressing after Max has been gone for a couple of days?

8. Though Ira Jackson has every right to want justice for his mother's death, his sense of justice is twisted. Why is Ira's idea of justice wrong and how is his execution of it immoral?

9. What does Jim Tile reveal that adds to the dimension of Skink's character?

10. How does the structure of Chapter 1 differ from a standard novel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Augustine's childhood affect who he is and the decisions he makes as an adult? How does Snapper's childhood affect who he is and the decisions he makes as an adult? What about other characters in the novel? Were backgrounds of others introduced to the reader ?

Essay Topic 2

How is the political system mocked in the novel? Use specific examples to show the author's intent.

Essay Topic 3

Is the epilogue necessary? Does the reader find satisfaction from having the epilogue or would the reader be better off with his own imagination?

(see the answer keys)

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