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

2. What is Old Zo’s response when Dany asks if he knows Estina?

3. What is Aline Cajuste’s position at the Haitian American Weekly?

4. Where does Dany get a sharp pain after walking for two hours?

5. Why does the narrator says that Claude is luckier than most?

Short Essay Questions

1. Under what conditions did Freda’s father disappear?

2. What is the action that takes place at Monsieur Christophe’s water station during the rioting?

3. What does Beatrice say is the secret to her coffee?

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

5. Who is the main character of the "Monkey Tails" chapter, and where is it set?

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

7. What are the three deaths Freda’s mother says all people have?

8. How does Danticat characterize the events in the streets of Port-au-Prince?

9. Who is Michel’s father, and who is Romain’s?

10. What is the significance of the title of the "Monkey Tails" chapter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

More than one of the characters in The Dew Breaker take on the role of mourners for the others. What service do these characters provide, and is there a sense in which the book itself is taking on the role of expressing grief for others? For whom? Over what?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

When is The Dew Breaker most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,026 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample