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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 does Bub contemplate while his mother is gone to sing for the orchestra members at The Casino?

2. While in Connecticut, what valuable lesson does Lutie learn?

3. Who calls for Boots as he is leaving The Casino?

4. What does Lutie recall after waking from her nightmare about Jones and the neighborhood?

5. Why does Lutie drop the subject of the draft when she knows Boots is lying?

Short Essay Questions

1. Chapter 1 outlines the dynamics of Lutie's household. Lutie's father's girlfriend, Lil, has Bub lighting her cigarettes and tasting her gin. How does Lil's behavior reflect and amplify Lutie's fears for her son?

2. In Chapter 1, what idea does the author hope to represent with the shrinking canary, dog, and woman in Jones' apartment?

3. Describe how Jones and Lutie view one another.

4. What does Lutie feels she sees in the eyes of the neighborhood people, specifically the people she sees in the emergency room?

5. Chapter 2 provides Lutie with a valuable lesson: "Anybody could be rich if he wanted to and worked hard enough and figured it out carefully enough." Still, Lutie is often discouraged by the world around her. How does the external world affect Lutie's internal life?

6. Chapter 4 more clearly depicts Jones' obsession with Lutie. In fact, "she made him more aware of his loneliness that ate into him day and night." How might Lutie's mere appearance open up such a void in Jones?

7. In Lutie's dream, she is the one being asked to "unloose" the neighborhood people. Why has Lutie has been given this charge in the dream?

8. Why has Lutie failed, up until Chapter 9, to consider that Bub might be afraid of staying home alone?

9. The author paints Jones as an obsessive character. He snoops around Lutie's apartment fantasizing about her and bothering her possessions. What does this behavior seem to foreshadow?

10. How does Lutie's grandmother's insistence that the butchers in Harlem use embalming fluid to give their meat a nice fresh color reflect her grandmother's overall view of life?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the male characters and the female characters in The Street. How do their roles in the novel differ? Specifically, how do their roles within the family, community (The Street), and greater world diverge? What qualities do both genders possess, if any? How have these differences developed according to the novel's characters? For example, how does Lutie explain the differences between the sexes? Use the text to support your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

While Boots can certainly be considered a shady character, he has done far less to harm Lutie than either Jones or Junto. Why then do you believe it is Boots who Lutie ends up harming? Do you think this was a deliberate act on the part of the author? If so, what point was she trying to make? Did she succeed in making it?

Essay Topic 3

Beginning as far back as Chapter 1, Lutie demonstrates the capacity to wander in and out of reality. She often fantasizes about things that aren't there and even questions the reliability of her sight. In an essay, identify several instances that exemplify Lutie's tendency to fantasize. Does this tendency inform her ability to commit murder? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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