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| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What do Harry and Jean agree that Bat and his friends all lack?
2. What obstacle does Gallows encounter at the first estate agent office he goes into?
3. When Gallows sees the other men in the market, what does he accuse them of, besides smoking?
4. When Battersby is daydreaming in the novel's opening, what does he wish for, besides a woman?
5. Which of his friends warns Bat to not get married?
Short Essay Questions
1. Other than the money, what do the things that Battersby imagines the genie bringing him all have in common with one another, and what does this demonstrate about Battersby himself?
2. How does the sentence "I mean, you think it have a lot of obeah and black magic in the West Indies, but if you listen to some of these Nordics" illustrate the unusual aspects of this book's narrative voice?
3. When Jean and Harry go out into the hallway to fix the fuse, what do they discuss?
4. Describe the woman that Gallows depended on for food and a place to live when he first came to London.
5. How did Gallows come to meet Battersby and his friends?
6. What is ironic about the way Syl's West Indian origins were exposed to his landlord?
7. What is the story of how Gallows came to live in London?
8. Describe the talent of Battersby's that the narrator talks about on pages 6 and 7.
9. How does Harry end up holding onto Poor's pack of cigarettes for him?
10. To whom does Battersby threaten to complain about his housing situation, and why does he decide against making a complaint?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Write an essay that affirms, refutes, or qualifies the following statement: "Harry Banjo's agent is, in effect, the magical genie that Bat has been waiting for throughout The Housing Lark." Be sure that, in taking a position on this idea, your essay considers the implications that this has for the theme of the novel. Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.
Essay Topic 2
We have already discussed how the narrator's attitudes toward gender do and do not overlap with those of the characters. But what about the author's perspective? Write an essay that takes and defends a position on the degree to which Sam Selvon's perspective on gender overlaps with that of the narrator of The Housing Lark. You may choose to use biographical information on Selvon as part of your defense of your position, but the majority of your evidence should be drawn from the text of The Housing Lark itself. 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.
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This section contains 1,185 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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