View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Sughrue encounter during a walk through the woods?

2. What does the nurse, Sughrue and Trahearne do the morning after Sughrue and the nurse's date?

3. What does Catherine want from Sughrue his first morning in Montana?

4. What feeling does Sughrue experience when he accomplishes a goal at work?

5. Who pays Sughrue's bill in the search for Trahearne?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is it significant that Albert Griffith searched the morgue for Betty Sue?

2. How do Selma Hinds' actions characterize her?

3. What is foreshadowed by Trahearne's eagerness to travel with Sughrue in the search for Betty Sue?

4. How does Peggy Blain's explanation of Betty Sue contribute to the development of Betty Sue's allure?

5. Are Sughrue's descriptions of Albert Griffith accurate? Why or why not?

6. How does Trahearne react to the porn Professor Richter shows him and Sughrue?

7. What is upsetting Sughrue about Betty Sue as the search continues? Why?

8. How does Sughrue's remark about his job and "the chase being over" indirectly characterize him?

9. Sughrue and Rosie concoct a story for the police. How does this story indirectly characterize them?

10. What tone is set when Sughrue says people in his business need "a moral certitude that I no longer even claimed to possess"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Edna owns the town's hotel. The story behind her acquisition is important to the story's development, especially Betty Sue's life. How is the hotel symbolic and what is the connection to Betty Sue/Melinda?

Essay Topic 2

Stacy has a small role in the novel. She does deal with all major characters at least once. What is the purpose of Stacy's character?

Essay Topic 3

Comment on how the different characters use alcohol. Look at Trahearne, Sughrue and Rosie. In what way does the characters' uses of alcohol characterize them?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 850 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample