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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 action does Jared ask Sebastian to take so that he will not get caught smoking in his bedroom?

2. What does Janice Whitcomb repeatedly cite as the reason that Mr. Whitcomb is never home?

3. What drink does Sebastian experience for the first time to accompany his first grilled cheese sandwich ever?

4. What happens to cut the first youth group meeting short?

5. What term does Sebastian use to refer to his instrument in the band that prompts Jared to tell him never to call it that again?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Sebastian's train of simple postscripts in his emails to Jared intrigue and draw Jared in to a friendship?

2. What is the significance of the scene in which Jared shows his scar?

3. What comments of Sebastian's upon his first visit to Jared's house infuriate Jared and cause him to lash out at Sebastian?

4. What is the significance of Sebastian's secret password for the computer in the dome?

5. What does Sebastian notice about Nana's clothing just before her stroke?

6. How does Janice's invitation to stay for lunch serve as a major turning point in Sebastian's life?

7. Explain the Guiding Principles according to Buckminster Fuller's philosophy of life.

8. What aspect of the distraction Jared decides to provide while Sebastian steals the bass is so cruel to Janice and why?

9. What comment from Sebastian causes the rest of the car ride home from youth group to be spent in uncomfortable silence?

10. What is the significance of Sebastian's first experience in a record store?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the carnivalesque nature of the novel's climax and explain how its qualities of the carnivalesque mesh with the novel's inherent themes.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze the character of Jared within the novel. Discuss the methods used by the author in order to make Jared come alive for the reader and include in your discussion determinations about his character's status as either static or dynamic and either round or flat.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the meaning of the novel's final passage in which Sebastian declares, "I brace for the noise" (352). How does the passage display the themes present throughout the work?

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