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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 the Big Man call it when he learns that the Solid Man was sent for him?

2. What does the narrator note about the other passengers when they exit the bus?

3. What does the man on the bus hope to gain by bringing something back on this trip?

4. Where is the one place the narrator encounters people in the gray town?

5. What about the space felt different after the narrator got out of the bus?

Short Essay Questions

1. How long does the narrator travel on the river? How far does he go?

2. What is remarkable about the other passengers once they are off the bus?

3. What does the narrator see coming down from the mountains to meet the ghosts? What is their appearance?

4. Describe the setting in which the narrator finds himself in at the beginning of the book.

5. What is the ghost in the bushes doing? Who is this ghost?

6. How does the Big Man reply when the solid person offers him help up the mountain? What does the solid person try to convince him of?

7. How does the Bright Person explain hell to the Fat Man?

8. Why does the man in the bowler hat tell the narrator the gray town seemed so desolate?

9. What does the Hard-Bitten Ghost invite the narrator to do? What is his reply?

10. What does the place appear as when the narrator gets off the bus?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the finals scenes the narrator encounters in The Great Divorce. What are the meanings of the symbols here? What does the table represent? The chess figures? How does this relate to the themes of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the plot structure of The Great Divorce. Include examples of and define the terms rising action, climax, and falling action in your discussion.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the setting in The Great Divorce. Is this setting realistic? Describe the qualities of the gray town, the bus, and the foothills. How are they different?

(see the answer keys)

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