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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 control does Shawn have over his body?

2. In Chapter 8, Shawn says that his father's books, poems, newspaper and magazine articles and his job teaching literature at college always made him think of his father as what?

3. According to Chapter 1, what is Bell Town?

4. What is Shawn's gift?

5. In the stanza of the poem that opens Chapter 8, what is the main question being asked?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Shawn describe the first signs that he will have a seizure?

2. What does Cindy do when the dog is hit by a car?

3. How does Shawn describe the tests administered by the school psychologist?

4. What kinds of things is Shawn able to remember using his gift?

5. What is Shawn able to do when his spirit leaves his body during a seizure?

6. What does Shawn consider ironic about his actual intelligence and the assumed level of his intelligence within his class at school?

7. According to Shawn, who is the Shawn in the poem written by his father?

8. Describe what the special education class at Shoreline High School is like according to Shawn, and how the students behave.

9. Why does Shawn think that it is cool to live in Seattle?

10. What movements does Shawn's body make and what controls them?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The theme of quality of life is central to Stuck in Neutral. Shawn is considered by some to have the life and awareness of a vegetable.

Part 1) How does Shawn first misinterpret this concept? What does it really mean? Who thinks that Shawn is a vegetable? Are they correct? Why or why not? How do the concepts of being a vegetable being famous, or being productive relate to "quality of life?" How does the concept of being productive relate?

Part 2) Shawn describes how his father enjoys life and how he is productive. Are these things that Shawn can aspire to doing as well? How might the inability to do these things cause Shawn's father and others to judge Shawn's quality of life? Does Shawn agree with them? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Why does Shawn love his seizures? Why does Shawn's father, on the other hand, see Shawn's seizures as a symbol of the pain he thinks Shawn experiences on a daily basis? Explore the irony of the contrast between the reality of Shawn's seizures and his father's perception of them.

Part 1) How does Shawn describe his seizures? What can he do while he is having a seizure that he cannot do at any other time?

Part 2) What is Shawn's father's perception of Shawn's seizures? What does he base his perception on? How valid are his perceptions? What does Shawn's father assume about his quality of life because of his seizures? What does Shawn think his father is planning as a result of Shawn's seizures and his father's assumption that they are painful. Why is this ironic?

Essay Topic 3

At the end of the novel, Sydney McDaniel comes into the room, sits down, and takes a quilted pillow from Shawn's oversized crib. Sydney cries as he speaks to Shawn and then confesses that he does not know what to do. Shawn is suddenly able to focus on his father and he thinks he finally connects with his father. Then Shawn has a seizure and floats away, realizing that he is flying free either way. So the novel ends without answering the question of whether Sydney kills Shawn. Is logical that Shawn has a seizure when he does in this chapter? Why or why not? What is the function of the seizure in this chapter? Did the author chose a cowardly or lazy way to end this novel? If not, why is it appropriate that the novel ends without answering the questions of whether Sydney kills Shawn?

(see the answer keys)

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