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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 Harry do to make himself feel better after his conversation with Jean near the park?

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

3. From the narrator's explanation of how dogs are treated in the West Indies, what is it reasonable to conclude?

4. After Nobby gets rid of his dog, what does he tell his landlady happened to it?

5. What does the narrator say the West Indian term "buttards" means (92)?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

3. What details does the narrator give that demonstrate how eager people are to go on the excursion?

4. What function do the historical details offered during the Hamdon Court excursion serve?

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

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

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

8. What details does the narrator give about the excursion crowd's clothing and the things they are carrying, and what do these details imply?

9. 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)?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that takes and defends a position on the following question: What does The Housing Lark's plot suggest about the "ownership" of land and countries? Think about how the characters' search for housing impacts them and what makes it so difficult for them to find secure housing in the first place. What is the perspective of the English landlords, and how much space in the novel is this perspective given? How did these landlords become landlords in the first place? Why does it matter that these characters are not just poor or nonwhite characters searching for housing but specifically immigrant characters looking for a home? What does Harry's plan to buy a house mean, at a deeper level? Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

In The Housing Lark, the characters live, work, and socialize primarily in Brixton. But many other areas of London are mentioned by name. Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about how these other areas of London are used in this text. What ideas do the various London boroughs and suburbs stand in for in the book's discussion of things like immigration, prejudice, and insider and outsider statuses? Support your ideas with evidence from the text, and cite all sources in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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