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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 do the bums tell Ray there is good money to be made prospecting?

2. What does Ray find in the mountain's face and climbs into it?

3. To what city do Japhy, Alvah, and Ray travel in order to buy hiking equipment?

4. What do the police consider to be an arresting offense, according to the bum Ray meets?

5. Ray finally realizes you can't _________ a mountain.

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Ray decide to sleep once he arrives at his mother's house?

2. What does Ray notice about Los Angeles as he rides the bus to Riverside?

3. What is the arrangement that Beaudry and Ray work out?

4. What does Ray decide to do once the rest of the family is in bed asleep?

5. Describe the character of Henry Morley.

6. List the four men who sit together at Japhy's small home, drinking wine together and discussing poetry.

7. How well prepared does Ray feel at the end of his shopping excursion with Japhy?

8. What does Ray ask Japhy to help him do once Ray receives money?

9. Describe the way Japhy decides to descend the mountain.

10. What does Morley forget that makes him fall behind in the hiking, though Japhy and Ray continue on without him anyway?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At times, Ray seems to be almost a student of Japhy's, listening to everything he says and watching everything Japhy does.

Part 1: What does Ray want to learn from Japhy at the beginning of the manuscript?

Part 2: Is Japhy comfortable with the role of being a teacher? Why or why not?

Part 3: What does Japhy have to learn from Ray, as the story progresses?

Essay Topic 2

One might say the sexualized descriptions of the women in this story are an indication of Kerouac's own feelings about women and his own perceptions of women.

Part 1: Describe the female characters who are introduced in this novel.

Part 2: What are the motivations of these women, as one can tell from reading about their actions? What does this say about the author's feelings about women?

Part 3: Which female character is the most important to the story? Why?

Essay Topic 3

The idea of 'yabyum' is one that is not only mysterious in the beginning of the story, but also even more mysterious as it is 'revealed' to Ray.

Part 1: How is the idea of yabyum defined by Japhy?

Part 2: How is Ray introduced to the idea of yabyum?

Part 3: Does yabyum seem to be truly experienced by these men? Or is it just an excuse to have sex as often as possible? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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