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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. How does Freda say she would introduce herself if she could?

2. Why does Claude accept Dany’s apology so quickly?

3. What condition does Freda say her father was in when he came back after time in prison?

4. How old was Claude when he killed his father?

5. What does Freda say the president of Haiti would throw from his car at New Year’s?

Short Essay Questions

1. Whose point of view is the "Night Talkers" chapter written from, and where is it set?

2. What does the main character of "Night Talkers" do is his dream?

3. What is the significance of the song Brother Timonie?

4. What news is the main character of "Night Talkers" bringing with him?

5. Why does Claude say that he is the luckiest man in the world?

6. Why does the main character of "Night Talkers" get three pieces of cloth to keep with him the rest of his life?

7. Why does Michel say he understood things he should have been too young to understand?

8. Who is the main character of the "The Funeral Singer" chapter, and where is it set?

9. Why did Freda emigrate from Haiti to the U.S.?

10. What does Beatrice say appeals to hear about making wedding dresses?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Dew Breaker does not end in confrontation or justice—Does the book propose terms by which justice might be accomplished? Are there characters in the book who accomplish justice in their way? What would it take for these characters to get justice? What would it take for you, as the reader, to feel the book led to some kind of closure?

Essay Topic 2

Identify the most important plot points in The Dew Breaker. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

Essay Topic 3

Writing and speaking are prominent themes in The Dew Breaker, as are being silent or losing the ability to speak. How do events silence people in The Dew Breaker, and how do characters regain their voices? Is the novel itself a character in the novel—insofar as the narrator’s third-person omniscient perspective provides the characters themselves with the insight or articulation they crave? What does the novel itself ultimately say for them?

(see the answer keys)

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