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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. The day before Brown and Jones leave, why does Captain Concasseur visit Brown at his hotel?

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

3. The night before Brown and Jones leave, what does Brown do?

4. When Jones's business is successful, what does he want to construct?

5. As Brown and young Philipot converse near the hotel pool, what does Philipot reveal that he is obsessed with?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Jones realizes that Captain Conasseur is curious about his actions, he comes to Brown's hotel in a panic. What does this tell us about Jones's plan to get rich? How prepared is he to deal with the Tonton Macoutes?

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

3. While lying in bed in the Hotel Trianon, Martha notes to brown that their relationship is no longer an adventure. What are the signs of this change? What are their choices for the future?

4. 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?

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 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?

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

9. According to Doctor Magiot in Part 2, Chapter 1, what role does Voodoo play in Haitian culture? What is its relation to Catholicism?

10. 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.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the times Brown is held at gunpoint by Captain Concasseur. What does he have to lose? Why does he react differently? How is the captain's attitude different? What are their roles in both scenes? For example, in the second incident, Brown notes that a person would not hesitate to shoot someone he sees as worthless.

Essay Topic 2

How does Jones's funeral tie the story together? Include all the characters who are present and the ways they react to the funeral. How is it fitting that all characters are brought together for this funeral? Can the honorable funeral be a form of forgiveness for Jones's lies?

Essay Topic 3

Brown often defines characters by their race, which seems also to determine their social standing. Is Brown trying to explain the world, or is he simply presenting the Haitian culture as it existed? What other pieces of the story present uniquely Haitian culture?

(see the answer keys)

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