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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 Tender do with the flowers he collects at the cemetery?

2. In chapter 36, who is Tender convinced that he received a phone call from?

3. What does Tender say happens now when he sees a fellow Creedish Church member?

4. Why does Tender go to the cemetery?

5. What does Fertility Hollis ask Tender when she calls his suicide hotline?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the caseworker usually ask Tender about, and how does he respond?

2. What is happening as the novel opens?

3. What is the discussion between Tender and his caseworker after he believes he has taken a call from the killer of the Creedish survivors? Why does she tell him not to worry?

4. Who is Trevor Hollis and what happens between Trevor and Tender Branson?

5. After Tender's first "date" with Fertility, he returns to his apartment and picks up the ringing phone, thinking it will be Fertility. Who is on the other end and what is the conversation between Tender and the caller?

6. What is the exchange between the pilot and Tender Branson before the pilot leaves the hijacked plane?

7. Explain the relationship between Fertility and Tender in chapter 36. What are the differences between Fertility's impressions of the Tender she sees in person and the Tender she speaks to on the phone?

8. How does Tender come to receive calls intended for a suicide prevention hotline and why does he continue to take them?

9. What happens when Tender and Fertility are on the bus on their third date?

10. How does Tender feel about the caseworker's death?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the novel, Tender gives bits and pieces of his past to the reader. The reader is able to piece together Tender's past and identify how he came to be the way that he is in the present. Tender, however, seems reluctant to share this information with the reader, much as he is with the caseworker. Discuss Tender's views on memories and his past. Is there a discrepancy between Tender's memories and what really happened in his past? Why? How does the reader discover this?

Essay Topic 2

The novel "Survivor" seems to contain a lot of trickery, deception and manipulation. Identify these instances in the novel. Which characters are the most prone to using means of deception to get their way? What is the outcome of the deception and manipulation used by the characters in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Tender seems to be lacking self-esteem throughout the novel, and he never really has much of his own life. Tender becomes a sort of puppet for the people in his life who manipulate him and use him for their own purposes. Who in the novel does Tender seem to be a "puppet" for? How is he treated by the people in his life, from his employers to Fertility to the agent to the Creedish Church? What effect does this have on this character?

(see the answer keys)

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