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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 word do the Goolrick's use instead of fabrics?

2. Who watches him do this to the girl next door?

3. What did the young man eventually become in life?

4. What did Goolrick hope his new object would provide for him?

5. How old was Goolrick when he was molested?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain how cream was used to make butter in the classroom.

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

3. Explain what happened the morning after Goolrick was molested.

4. 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?

5. Summarize Goolrick's experiences during kindergarten and first grade.

6. Explain Goolrick's graduation speech.

7. Explain what happens when Goolrick runs into the boys from school.

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

9. Describe Mrs. Lackman's son.

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

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

Foreshadowing is used heavily in the novel, as Goolrick flips between historical memory and current fact to weave together his painful memoir. Choose three examples of foreshadowing, and discuss them in depth in terms of how they were used to indicate what was to come later in the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Goolrick's mother, according to Goolrick in "The End of the World as We Know It," seemed to blame him for the molestation, as though he had done something to deserve it, or had somehow asked for it. Do you think this is merely how Goolrick felt, or do you think she actually felt this way? Why? How did she show her feelings for Goolrick, according to his statements in the rest of the novel? Was she kind, horrific, or both, and why? Be sure to use examples from the book.

(see the answer keys)

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