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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 happens to the Beauty Witch when the group reaches Houston?

2. What happens when the Pranksters arrive at the seven-day Unitarian Conference?

3. Where does the author Tom Wolfe first meet Kesey?

4. What does Kesey discover at Stanford that changes the course of his life?

5. Who is most likely to understand Kesey and the Merry Pranksters?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to Perry Lane when Kesey and his family return following the publication of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?"

2. Have the Pranksters broken away from mainstream society?

3. How is Kesey's second novel, Sometimes a Great Nation, received? How does Kesey react to the reviews?

4. Why do the Leary followers dislike the Pranksters?

5. What is the significance of the Bladder Totem?

6. Why does Kesey refuse to tell people that they should STOP taking LSD?

7. Kesey compares this time in American History to what other time in ancient history?

8. After Stark Naked goes mad and has to leave the group, the purpose of the trip and the documentary become clearer. What is that purpose?

9. What distracts Wolfe when he is trying to listen to Hassler explain what the Pranksters mean when they talk about the games the straight world is caught up in?

10. What starts to annoy the other Pranksters about Kesey at this point in their story?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Do you think that Tom Wolfe did a good job in telling the story of Kesey and the Merry Pranksters? Did you feel that he captured the essence of these people accurately? Or was he handicapped by his lack of experience with LSD?

Essay Topic 2

The Pranksters often talk about the outside world, the 'straight world.' In this chapter, however, when Wolfe asks Hassler to define what the Pranksters mean by the games the straight world plays, Hassler struggles to define it. What is Wolfe saying about this group and their beliefs?

Essay Topic 3

One of the recurring themes in this story is control. Specifically, Kesey's need to have control of the Pranksters and the situations in which he found himself. Starting with the bus, which was apparently Babb's original idea, how does Kesey continually assert his control over the group? Why do you think he needs this control? What does it say about him?

(see the answer keys)

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