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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 kind of work did Journeyman and Todbaum once collaborate on?

2. How had Maddy's nature always struck Journeyman?

3. What does Journeyman do in Tinderwick?

4. In Chapter 29, where does the new woman who comes to town in a boat set up her residence?

5. In Chapter 6, how does the person who has come looking for Journeyman arrive?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens between Todbaum and Maddy when Maddy visits Journeyman in Los Angeles?

2. In what sense do Journeyman's rounds of food delivery expand in Part II?

3. What does Todbaum say about Tinderwick and its environs in the section titled Island and Lighthouse that unsettles Journeyman?

4. Why do the people of Tinderwick gather around Todbaum's machine, apart from the free coffee he distributes?

5. Why has Jerome Kormentz been exiled by the townspeople and where does he live?

6. What does the warning sign in the section Frost Heaves say, and what association does the narrator make with the sign?

7. What is Journeyman's job in Tinderwick and how does he feel about the job?

8. What part of the Blue Streak is particularly popular with the townspeople of Tinderwick, including, grudgingly, Journeyman?

9. What is Astur's background?

10. Why does Maddy get so angry with Journeyman several months after The Arrest, as described in the section "Loss"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is your understanding of the event called The Arrest? What do you think are some reasons Lethem keeps the causes and consequences of The Arrest so generally vague, and how does this vagueness affect the reader's experience of this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your answers.

Essay Topic 2

What kind of a storyteller is Journeyman? What kind of a storyteller is Todbaum? Why is the topic of storytelling important in this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusion.

Essay Topic 3

Edwin Gorse takes a stand in the later parts of this novel, ultimately dying in the name of a set of beliefs. What principles, ethics, morals, or other beliefs do you think Gorse believed himself to be dying for, and how does Gorse's infatuation with Todbaum inform his beliefs right before his death? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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