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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 does Myra say when Henry calls to ask her to run away with him, in Chapter 23?

2. Where does Claire go when she leaves Denver?

3. What does Will's house have?

4. Why does Claire say she cannot have a relationship with Henry?

5. How does Henry feel about the job Bat Lanahan found for him?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the scene in which Henry met Claire.

2. What gets Henry out of New York?

3. What augury does Henry find on his trip?

4. Describe Henry's trip to Denver to see Claire before she leaves for college.

5. What happens to Henry and Claire's daughter?

6. How does Claire die?

7. What does Henry remember of his father at the funeral?

8. Describe Henry's state, in Chapter 13, as he drives eastward.

9. What are Henry's thoughts when he muses on death, in chapter 17?

10. Describe Joe's death.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How consistent is 'Fool's Progress'? Do the characterizations established in the first few chapters hold true for the rest of the book? How are any exceptions dealt with? Does the book end close to where it started?

Essay Topic 2

Assess the claim that in Henry Lightcap, Edward Abbey is dramatizing Thoreau's instruction to 'simplify, simplify, simplify'? In what ways is Henry Lightcap simplifying his life? In what ways is he always complicating it? What is the value of the simplicity he espouses?

Essay Topic 3

What purpose does Henry's secret have in the novel? What is the secret, and how does our ignorance of the secret (as well as our speculation, as Henry recounts his life stories) affect our reading experience? What do we expect the secret to be?

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