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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 Poor do for a living?

2. What time does Battersby usually wake up to get ready for work?

3. When Poor and Harry are smoking in the park, what question does Harry ask?

4. What does Bat plan to do about the money missing from the house-buying fund?

5. What is Battersby's sister irritated about when she comes downstairs to where Battersby's friends have gathered?

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. Describe Battersby's apartment.

3. 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?

4. According to the narrator, what are Alfy's, Nobby's, and Syl's real thoughts about buying the house?

5. What is the story of how Gallows came to live in London?

6. 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?

7. What is ironic about the way Syl's West Indian origins were exposed to his landlord?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that analyzes the layered meaning of the book's title. How does the title point toward the idea of a quixotic quest? How does it create expectations of humor? How does it exemplify the way that humor is used to deflect from pain throughout the novel? Why "lark" instead of "folly" or "plan" or "quest"? Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

How is The Housing Lark itself potentially an example of using humor as a defense against pain? Consider how the characters use humor as a deflecting device and defense mechanism. Then, do some research into Sam Selvon's background and his other works. What evidence do you find that suggests whether or not Sam Selvon's writing of The Housing Lark as a comedy is similar to his characters' use of comedy? Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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