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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What makes Jones sad about dressing as a woman?
(a) Having to wear lipstick.
(b) Not knowing how to manage his skirts.
(c) Shame at not looking like a man, as usual.
(d) Shaving off his moustache.

2. Why do Jones and Brown go back to the Medea?
(a) The ship is the only place they can safely hide.
(b) Brown does not know what else to do with Jones.
(c) Jones wants to ask advice from the captain.
(d) Jones wants to travel to the United States.

3. The day before Brown and Jones leave, why does Captain Concasseur visit Brown at his hotel?
(a) To threaten him if he exceeds his one-day pass.
(b) To tell him that Tonton Macoutes will check him at every roadblock.
(c) To give him false information, hoping to lure him into a trap.
(d) To intimidate him into not going.

4. Mrs. Smith is proud of the American ballot that shows her husband's name as a presidential candidate. What is Brown's perception of voting in Haiti?
(a) The effort is not worth the outcome.
(b) Only votes that agree with the Tonton Macoute will count.
(c) A person is safer staying home.
(d) Every vote is important.

5. According to the new Secretary for Social Welfare, why did Doctor Philipot not have a funeral?
(a) In accordance with Voodoo tradition, there was no burial ceremony.
(b) He had requested cremation.
(c) His coffin was filled with bricks.
(d) His widow did not want a funeral.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why do the Smiths decide to stay and pursue the building of the vegetarian center?

2. What does the priest do with the bodies which the dancers bring to him?

3. When Brown hears footsteps outside his hotel, what weapon does he grab?

4. How do the policemen retaliate for the attack on the police station?

5. Who shoots Captain Concasseur and rescues Brown and Jones from capture?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Brown attends the Voodoo ceremony with Joseph, several white-wrapped bodies are held close to the flame so that the skin burns. What is the effect of this scene? What is its possible antecedent?

2. When Brown picks up Jones at the British embassy to smuggle him out of the city, how has Jones's attitude changed? What motivates this?

3. What is the significance of saying Doctor Philipot's coffin is filled with bricks?

4. What is the purpose of the Tonton Macoutes' visit to Brown at six o'clock in the morning? Do they expect to find anyone?

5. In order to leave the Medea to travel to the British embassy, Jones dresses as a woman. What is the effect of this costume? How does it reflect on Jones?

6. Young Philipot, who visits Brown while he is swimming one early afternoon, is consumed with the idea of owning a Bren gun and fighting Papa Doc's army with it. In his idealism, what other character does he resemble and why?

7. When Brown's car breaks down on the road, he and Jones take refuge in a cemetery until the morning. How does this fit their time in Haiti? How does it portend what is to come?

8. Why do the Smiths change their minds about opening a vegetarian center? How does the Secretary for Social Welfare misunderstand Mr. Smith?

9. From even their first meeting, Brown hesitates to address Jones as "Major Jones." How does this begin to explain Jones's character? How does it prepare the reader for the revelation that Jones has never even seen a man die?

10. Though Brown does not want to board the Medea for a last drink with the purser, he feels attached to the ship and the memories there. What does this say about Brown's loneliness? Is he happy alone in his hotel?

(see the answer keys)

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