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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. Whom does Goolrick meet on his way into town?

2. What killed Sally Page?

3. What did brother want mother to say before he ate his dinner?

4. What happened to the cream?

5. What does Goolrick begin to obsess about?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the confrontation between Goolrick and his mother in the first grade.

2. Describe the events that took place with Roy and Goolrick's brother in the field.

3. What does Goolrick mean by "how did they thrive so long, and then fail" at the end of this chapter?

4. Explain what happened when Goolrick was a boy, when he was invited to a sleep over at the McClouds.

5. Explain how Goolrick and his siblings coerce their mother into buying things, and how they pay for it.

6. Describe the creek and explain why it is "violently sexy".

7. Describe why Goolrick was compelled to masturbate, in terms of how it made him feel and how it allowed him to escape.

8. What does Goolrick mean when he says he has spent his life looking for the thing that will make him into whom he wants to be?

9. Explain what happened to Goolrick when he was four years old.

10. What does Goolrick mean when he points out that they boys thought he was one of them?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

It is clear that Goolrick has developed, over the years, a deviant sense of sexuality. How is this displayed in the novel? What sexual experiences does Goolrick discuss from his early youth and his teenage years that show this deviance? How do these events tie into Goolrick's fear in his teens that he was sexually poisonous, and that his touch would kill others? Why did his masturbation become such an important event to him, and how did that event become frightening and painful? How do you think this effected his overall sexuality later in life?

Essay Topic 2

Explain, in detail, why the burned dress of Goolrick's mother made such an impact on him in "Burn." What did the dresses symbolize to Goolrick, and therefore, what did the damaged dress symbolize? Did Goolrick ever determine what was lost in his family? If so, what was it? If not, what do you think was missing in Goolrick's family?

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the environment in which Goolrick was raised to the current social environment. What are similarities? What are differences? How do you think these might have contributed to his parent's alcoholism? How did the environment contribute to the molestation of Goolrick by his father? Do you think Goolrick's life would have been different in today's society? How?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,213 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample