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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 Eldon Tamana plan to do?

2. What does the doctor suggest to Anges Tsosie?

3. Who does Perry upbraid about the package?

4. At what hospital is Agnes Tsosie?

5. What is odd about the dead body with which Leaphorn is concerned?

Short Essay Questions

1. What shocks Catherine Perry about the box on her desk?

2. What is so mysterious about the body in the desert?

3. What does Janet say about one of McDermott's clients who is a real estate developer?

4. What is Catherine Perry's thoughts about Highhawk's request?

5. What does Catherine Perry find on her desk and who does she blame?

6. Why hasn't The Client paid Fleck the rest of the money owed Fleck?

7. Describe what Joe Leaphorn finds at the crime scene Kennedy asks him to investigate.

8. What is Jim Chee's response to Mary's letter?

9. Where is Jim Chee planning to go on his vacation?

10. What ceremony is Jim Chee observing and why is he there?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Talking God, like most detective novels, involves the act of murder. Discuss the following:

1. What is murder? Is the act of murder always clearly murder?

2. Do you think the death of Leroy Fleck, who is a known murderer, is at all tragic? Why or why not.

3. Is murder ever justified? Why or why not.

Essay Topic 2

Getting the most out of this novel requires some familiarity with the Navajo cultures. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Who are the Navajo? What are some of the different clans of Navajo? How do the various clans differ, if they do? What are some of their common beliefs? How do the Navajo live in today's world?

3. How does the Navajo culture inform the plot and actions of this novel? Give examples.

4. Compare and contrast the cultures of two Southwestern Native American tribes.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the following:

1. Choose two incidences in Talking God and compare/contrast the way the Navajo culture and the western, white culture view those incidents.

2. Write an argument/persuasion essay addressing the idea of assimilation versus a group keeping their own culture when they live within a larger culture.

3. Conduct 2 interviews of Native Americans or persons from a different culture who have moved to the United States and ask them about the idea of assimilation versus merging into the predominent culture of the United States.

(see the answer keys)

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