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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 item is not in Shawn's father's bedroom?

2. What do Cindy's friends do in front of Shawn that he sees as a "silver lining?"

3. What shocks Shawn while he is dreaming about the angels?

4. In Chapter 13, to whom does Shawn's dad say that he is not interested in taking the wheelchair for a ride?

5. When Shawn starts watching The Alice Ponds Show and Dad and Cindy come on the screen, what happens?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Shawn try to tell his father over and over again in Chapter 16, and why?

2. What is Shawn's opinion of the role of memories and "being known for who you are" when someone dies?

3. In Chapter 14, Shawn dreams that his father sees angels. What is the significance of the angels?

4. While Shawn has a doozy of a seizure during the end of the Alice Ponds show, what does he experience?

5. What is the Annie-Sullivan-meeting-Helen Keller-in-The Miracle-Worker routine and what does Shawn think about it?

6. What did Shawn's father do at the Pacific Science Center when Shawn was eight years old?

7. After he sees his father's appearance on The Alice Ponds Show, why does Shawn say that he is floating in an ocean of negativity?

8. What is Sydney McDaniel's definition of parental love, as offered on The Alice Ponds Show?

9. Why does Shawn say in Chapter 12 that he never loved or feared his brother more than at one particular moment the previous summer?

10. On The Alice Ponds Show, there is a clip of an interview between Sydney McDaniel and Earl Detraux. What does Earl Detraux look like and what is his demeanor?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Cindy often has sleepovers and Shawn's reaction to his sister's friends shows that in some ways he is a typical teenage boy.

Part 1) How does his sister and her friends regard Shawn? How do they think of him? How do they react to him and behave around him?

Part 2) How does Shawn normally react to his sister's friends? How does he react to Ally? Does he judge her behavior by the same standards as he uses for other girls? Why or why not?

Part 3) Why does Shawn think that Ally is "so perfect!"? Is he reacting like a normal teenage boy, or is something else at play here? How does his reaction to Ally help or hinder the plot?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Sydney McDaniel writes a poem that wins him a Pulitzer prize. This poem symbolizes everything Mr. McDaniel sees and feels about Shawn's disability. Shawn, however, has mixed feelings about the poem. He believes that the fame that the poem brings his father has made him into a professional victim. He also sees the valid benefits of the fame. Name three ways in which the poem turns Sydney into a professional victim and several ways that the fame produces valid benefits for the family.

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