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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 Bat why he called the name "Jeanie" while they were having sex, what literary technique is employed (52)?

2. Why is Nobby so anxious to make sure his landlady likes him?

3. Which of the friends sees Harry as he is being led away by the two men?

4. When Gallows looks at the pavement of Bayswater Road, what does it make him wonder about London?

5. Where is Pat from?

Short Essay Questions

1. What about the timing of the mens' plan to buy a house makes the narrator think they were never serious to begin with?

2. What does Syl spend most of his free time doing in the summer, and why does it seem to be a wasted effort?

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

4. 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?

5. When, outside the final hotel, Gallows asks whether Syl got Pat an Indian curry, what is he referring to, and what is Syl's reply?

6. What tactics does Syl use to try to get Pat to sleep with him that violate modern Western standards of consent?

7. How does Bat manipulate the situation so that he is the one who ends up with Pat?

8. What story about finding money did Alfy once tell Gallows?

9. What two opposing forces pull at Charlie Victor during the excursion to Hamdon Court?

10. What does Poor do to disrupt the excursion, and why does he do it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Do some research on portrayals of West Indians in the literature and culture of Britain prior to the 1970's. Write an essay that places The Housing Lark within this context, making and defending a claim about whether or not The Housing Lark functions as an act of opposition to the dominant culture in this time and place. Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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