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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. At the beginning of Part 1, Chapter 3, as the Smiths are being driven to the airport, what does Mr. Smith do?
(a) Scatters money to the beggars at the post office.
(b) Gives Joseph a large tip for the service he's provided.
(c) Thanks Brown profusely for being a good host.
(d) Bribes the Tonton Macoute driver to bypass the roadblock.

2. What keeps Brown awake during the all-night voodoo ceremony?
(a) The face of young Philipot.
(b) The pounding of the drums.
(c) The sight of the young girls drinking.
(d) The mysterious liquor that was served.

3. At the casino with Luigi, whom does Brown see from the ship?
(a) Mr. Baxter.
(b) The purser.
(c) The man with the tin hat.
(d) The captain.

4. Who shoots Captain Concasseur and rescues Brown and Jones from capture?
(a) Philipot.
(b) Doctor Magiot.
(c) The ambassador.
(d) Joseph.

5. Jones finally tells Brown how he got the traveling cocktail case. What is the truth?
(a) He walked out of the store with it.
(b) The captain of his platoon gave it to him.
(c) He won it in a bet in Burma.
(d) He used a company check to buy it.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Jones's opinion about swindling the educated people?

2. When Brown visits Jones the afternoon after the Smiths leave town, what do the two men drink?

3. Why does Jones want a business partner in the venture he is planning?

4. As Luigi the Italian is gambling, why he is depressed?

5. How does the captain intimidate the police officer who came onboard the ship?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. When Jones and Brown board the Medea so Jones can ask for asylum, Brown describes the ship's captain like a judge. What is the effect of this appearance? Is this the first time a judge figure has appeared in the book? How does this contrast to Haitian culture?

3. 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?

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. The night before he takes Jones out of Port-au-Prince, Brown wanders through his empty hotel. What does it reveal to the reader about Brown's personality? What is the effect of this scene?

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. At the end of Part 2, Chapter 1, Brown comes to a realization about himself. What is this realization? How does it change the reader's understanding of him? How does it fit with his wandering to the casino and then to the Medea, talking with the purser?

8. 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?

9. Why do Mr. and Mrs. Smith refer several times to their experience in Nashville? Brown wonders this himself, when Mrs. Smith references that incident in order to win an argument with her husband.

10. The second time Brown visits the casino, the place is drastically changed from the night he met Martha. How is it different? What does this signal about Haiti's economy?

(see the answer keys)

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