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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. While at the location in #177, the narrator learns that which celebrity has died?

2. The person in #102 instructs the narrator on how to be a better lover and a better ______________.

3. What is another reason that the narrator is having a better time being homosexual?

4. Who is the temperamental roommate who the narrator has for awhile?

5. What does the apartment building's doorman tell the narrator's mother when she returns?

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

3. How does the relationship between Maria and the narrator change when she moves to New York?

4. 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?

5. Where does the narrator move to instead of going to Harvard where he has been accepted into a graduate program?

6. How can Sean's "subhuman" comment be viewed in another context regarding the narrator's letting go of the shame he used to have for his behavior and desires?

7. What is the reality of Lou's life as an engaged man?

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

9. What does the narrator consider for his life after Paul commits suicide in order to leave a world that rejects people like him?

10. What happens to the narrator after Sean is gone?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

The theme of struggling with personal identity is an important one in this novel. Describe how it extends through setting, character and issues and provide examples for each.

Essay Topic 3

Explain the role of gays and lesbians in the 1960s. What precedents were they forced to follow? What restrictions did they have? What freedoms did they have that 21st century gays and lesbians do not have?

(see the answer keys)

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