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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. When Matilda asks Jean about marrying Harry, what is Jean's first objection to Harry?

2. When Gallows sees the other men in the market, what does he accuse them of, besides smoking?

3. Which man volunteers to keep an eye on everyone and fine them if they are caught wasting money on drinking, smoking, or dating?

4. After Harry moves in, how does Bat's attitude about the apartment change?

5. What word does the narrator use to refer to the structure of his storytelling?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is ironic about the difference between the food Battersby imagines on page 2 and the food he genuinely likes?

2. What observations does the narrator make about hidden ambition before telling the story of how Gallows came to England?

3. What is ironic about the conversation that Alfy, Nobby, and Syl have about Harry's banjo, and what does this conversation reveal about the men?

4. How did Gallows come to meet Battersby and his friends?

5. What number does Bat imagine giving his apartment, and why is this important to him?

6. To whom does Battersby threaten to complain about his housing situation, and why does he decide against making a complaint?

7. Why does the narrator say that weather forecasters should be "diplomats" (4)?

8. Which of Bat's friends takes photographs, and what is comical about how he does it?

9. What does the narrator say to his audience about his decision not to offer more details about Poor's appearance and origins?

10. When the novel opens, what is Battersby doing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the narrator's code-switching support meaning in The Housing Lark? The narrator mixes vernacular with Standard British English and infuses his narrative with references to both West Indian and English culture, alluding to literature, the Bible, mathematics, and other traditional academic subjects. Write an essay that considers not only the impact that this has on the reader but also how this code-switching reinforces ideas found in passages such as the discussion of weather at the beginning of the novel and the discussion of history throughout the Hamdon Court sequence. Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

The Housing Lark is a novel that conveys much about the importance of community--Selvon uses characters, plot details, narrative voice, and other tools to reinforce his meaning. How does he also use the structure of storytelling itself to reinforce the novel's messages about community? What structures might he have chosen rather than his "ballad" format? How does this pattern of digression into individuals' stories and return to the central plot of the housing plan transmit an important message about community? Write an essay that analyzes how the novel's structure supports its concerns with the importance of community. Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that explicates and analyzes the novel's implicit comparison of white, Western readers of The Housing Lark with the tourists on the river Thames at Hamdon Court. How does the novel make this comparison? Why does it make this comparison? Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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