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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's Ollie's nickname?

2. What does Roy go to see in which Pinkus participates?

3. What does the Fat Man say is keeping him busy when he talks to Roy after a long absence?

4. Upon hearing Pinkus discuss his, what does Roy realize he does not have one of his own?

5. Where are Roy and his friends when Berry gives them all advice?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is a Blue Blazer, and what happens when Roy calls one up?

2. What does the Fat Man focus on in his workshop? What specialties?

3. What was happening that made the interns all more isolated from one another?

4. How does Roy claim that many people in the hospital "take out our hatred, our loneliness, our horror with human suffering, and our despair at human endings"?

5. Why can't they ever get rid of the one gomer Harry the Horse?

6. Why does Berry say that it is emotionally detrimental for the interns when they move on so quickly from things (like Potts' death) and in spite of everything, act like there is no past?

7. What started happening around Passover and what was Roy's idea to stop it? Does it work?

8. What is so strange about how Eat My Dust Eddie speaks about his newborn baby?

9. What is Pinkus' state of health as opposed to how he used to be?

10. When the elevator doesn't move, what is Roy's reaction? When he asks Eddie if he's gone nuts, what is his response? What does this show about their states of mind?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Roy is steered in the direction of considering psychiatry instead the continuation of medical school. His father admits he always was good figuring out people. Come up with at least three instances where Roy displayed character traits which are in line with those of psychiatry. Explain in detail how these traits would help him in the field.

Essay Topic 2

Berry says the interns' problem is that they seem to obliterate each day in order to start the new one. In other words, "one day at a time" philosophy taken seriously. Although a way to cope when having a difficult time, Berry pointed out that there is no emotional growth when acting this way, so nothing changes, and the person continues to have a difficult time coping with their life. Choose at least two characters and give specific examples of when they were exemplifying this philosophy within the novel.

Essay Topic 3

One moment Roy believes the Fat Man to be right about everything, and then he questions him the next moment. For a good amount of time, he believes Pinkus had the right idea about medicine, until he snapped out of it. Why do you believe that Roy had such confusion regarding the different perspectives of the doctors? Was it because he was devoid of an opinion of his own, or was he just susceptible to others' viewpoints?

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