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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. Where does Bat first suggest Syl look for a hotel room?
2. Which phrase that Bat allegedly reads from the housing listings on page 61 is a clue that he might be lying?
3. On page 81, what description of his own demeanor does Bat give when he is persuading Syl to let him be the one to go into the final hotel to ask for a room?
4. According to Bat's reading of one housing listing, how much money will the friends need for a deposit on a house in Notting Hill?
5. What does Bat say is wrong with the house that he supposedly went to see in Cricklewood?
Short Essay Questions
1. What story about finding money did Alfy once tell Gallows?
2. When the friends come to Bat's apartment to ask for their money back, what does the narrator mean when he says that Bat "shake the lists as if they was cheques" (60)?
3. What function do the historical details offered during the Hamdon Court excursion serve?
4. What details does the narrator give about the excursion crowd's clothing and the things they are carrying, and what do these details imply?
5. What does Teena expect from Fitz during the excursion, and how does he get out of doing what she asks?
6. How did Nobby end up with a dog?
7. Describe Bat's reaction to Matilda's suggestion about the excursion.
8. How did Harry end up in London, and what point does the narrator say this illustrates?
9. Who are the Legion of Mary sisters, and what do they want from Jean?
10. What irony does the narrator point out in the way men treat women?
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
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.
Essay Topic 3
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.
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This section contains 1,189 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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