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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 had the narrator intended to study in the graduate program?

2. What has the narrator written?

3. What does the narrator's mother give him before she goes?

4. Lou and Maria both know that the narrator ___________________ Sean.

5. The narrator has to take Lou to a backroom physician to treat _______________________.

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

3. Who is Sean and how did the narrator meet him?

4. Why is the New York experience so important to the narrator's longing to be part of a community?

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

6. How are the narrator's parents portrayed in the book and what do they want most for their son?

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

8. How can the raid on the Stonewall Inn be both a beginning and an ending of a gay rights movement?

9. How does shame get pushed aside in the events leading up to, and after, the Stonewall Inn raids?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

The story takes place as America is experiencing the Hippie Generation, the Vietnam War, Woodstock, and drug usage in the late 1960s. Explain the significance of these political and cultural events on the narrator and the other homosexual people in his life. How would the narrator's life be different if he were living as a young man today? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

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