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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. How does Rose Mary try to keep Rex from spending the family's money?

2. According to Rose Mary, how should Jeannette explain her mother's situation to others?

3. What is Rose Mary's philosophy on child-rearing?

4. How does Jeannette feel as she looks around her comfortable apartment?

5. Why won't Rose Mary talk about her homelessness?

Short Essay Questions

1. What incident precipitates the family's leaving Battle Mountain for Phoenix?

2. Why does Jeannette ask the cab driver to go back to the apartment after she sees her mother from afar in Part 1?

3. How does Rose Mary's philosophy of life make it difficult for her to hold a job?

4. Why does the Walls family frequently pack up and move in the middle of the night?

5. How do Lori and Jeannette help take responsibility for the new baby, Maureen, on the trip to their new home in Part 2?

6. What does Grandma Smith provide for Jeannette that she doesn't get at home?

7. Why does Rex dislike staying with Rose Mary's mother (Grandma Smith)?

8. What is Rex's reaction to Rose Mary's plan to travel to West Virginia and what happens when the family gets ready to go?

9. What are Rex's feelings about how the family finances should be handled? How does he manage money?

10. How does Rose Mary try to make the family's Christmas in Phoenix special, and what happens to ruin it for them all?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Rex's alcoholism is a major theme in the memoir. Although he occasionally is able to stop drinking for a short time, inevitably he returns to it. What personality traits and aspects of his background seem to contribute to his tendency toward alcoholism?

Essay Topic 2

Life is hard for the Walls family wherever they go. However, in different places it is hard in different ways. Compare their lives in Phoenix, Battle Mountain, and Welch, answering each of the following questions about each location:

1) What are the family's basic living conditions like?

2) What is Rose Mary's emotional condition like and how does it affect the rest of the family?

3) Discuss Rex's emotional condition as well.

Essay Topic 3

Money is not important to Rose Mary and Rex Walls, which is demonstrated throughout the book. Although it may sometimes appear that the couple's actions are somewhat amoral or selfish, they are actually living according to their own set of moral values that do not agree with those of society. What are the values of Rose Mary and Rex and how do they demonstrate them to both their children and the world? What is it that really matters to Rex and Rose Mary?

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