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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. Of the friends who have agreed to the housing plan, which three does the narrator say are at least somewhat serious about getting a house?

2. When Harry is wandering through Piccadilly Circus, still high from smoking with Poor, what is he thinking about?

3. What does Gallows take from a pile of trash when he, Syl, Pat, and Bat are looking for a hotel room?

4. Why does Harry go into the phone booth?

5. What does Gallows toss to Syl as he leaves him outside the final hotel?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain Matilda's "excursion" plan.

2. Describe the crowd's behavior on the bus on the way to Hamdon Court.

3. 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)?

4. What irony does the narrator point out in the way men treat women?

5. Describe Bat's reaction to Matilda's suggestion about the excursion.

6. What does Teena expect from Fitz during the excursion, and how does he get out of doing what she asks?

7. How did Harry end up in London, and what point does the narrator say this illustrates?

8. When they are talking near the park, what truths does Jean reveal to Harry about Bat and his friends?

9. Who are the Legion of Mary sisters, and what do they want from Jean?

10. When the friends come to Bat's apartment to ask for their money back, how does Bat use their feelings for Harry to manipulate them?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that analyzes what The Housing Lark conveys about the importance of belonging. Consider the situations of Gallows, Syl, Poor, and Charlie Victor. How does Syl's ethnic background make his "belonging" more tenuous, and what impacts does this have on him? What is it that isolates Gallows, and how does he work toward becoming more integrated with his friend group? How do Poor's and Charlie Victor's actions and beliefs isolate them, and what are the emotional consequences? 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

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.

(see the answer keys)

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