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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 Fatty claim the people of Hemlock Row eat?

2. How much moonshine does Fatty bring back from his cousin Gene?

3. What instrument does Lionel Hampton play?

4. How does the novel gloss the term “johnnies”?

5. Where does Ferdie gamble on horses?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Gus dislike Doc?

2. When does Nate note having heard the South Carolina State marching band?

3. How does Pia gather gossip to pass along to her friends?

4. Why does Monkey Pants’s marble inspire hope in Dodo?

5. How does Dodo’s deafness help him communicate with Monkey Pants?

6. How does Fatty typify the Lowgods?

7. Why does Fatty turn to his cousin Gene for help with his dental needs?

8. Why does Fatty absent himself from Chona’s funeral?

9. Why are members of a Jewish group in the novel called meat slabs?

10. Why does Dodo assign Monkey Pants his sobriquet?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The novel comments repeatedly on the South, despite taking place in what is clearly the North. How is the South figured in the novel? What effect on the reader does that figuration have? How is it produced?

Essay Topic 2

What character is the protagonist of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store? How does the novel support such an assertion?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the ending of the novel. Does it satisfy? How or how not?

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