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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 the narrator suggest that he and Sean do together?

2. Who goes with the narrator to the city in #123?

3. What shocking news does the narrator's sister tell him during her visit?

4. What type of operation does the narrator decide not to have?

5. Where do the narrator and the person in #124 live?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator experience for the first time after a sexual encounter in a subway restroom that he has never experienced before?

2. How does the narrator's decreasing shame mirror what is going on in the gay community in general?

3. How do the narrator's views of himself change according to whose perspective he is viewed in?

4. What is significant about the energy created among the men after the group sexual encounter in the subway restroom

5. What do the narrator's parents--and society in general--consider to be a "normal" lifestyle for their son?

6. What are a couple of topics that Lou tries to educate the narrator on?

7. How did the poverty-stricken lives of Betts and Buddy mirror the social deprivation during the times they lived through?

8. What is the narrator's life like after he moves to New York?

9. Why does Sean's comment about a group of men having sex in a public restroom as being "subhuman" have a particular sting for the narrator?

10. What eventually happens to Sean who is conflicted by his own identity?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The latter part of the novel takes place in the late 1960s as America is experiencing free love, war protests, gay liberation and radical shifts in music. Research this period in America and create a multimedia presentation of the clothes, food, music and people during

Essay Topic 2

The author uses more than one iteration on the theme of the search for love. Identify at least two themes about love in the book. Then cite an example to support each theme you name.

Essay Topic 3

The role of parental influence is a strong one--mostly negative--on the narrator. Why was the narrator's sexual preference particularly hard on his father? What solution did the narrator's mother have for her son's "problem"? Explain.

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