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. After a time, what happened between Rose and Jack?

2. What is Andy's girlfriend's name?

3. What is the doubt that Andy's girlfriend has about their relationship?

4. How does Jack feel about television?

5. After Mat determines that Jack is dead, where does he go?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Mat annoyed with the preacher during Jack's funeral?

2. What kind of funeral does Mat know Jack wanted to have?

3. What does Margaret Feltner tell Andy before he leaves?

4. After the dinner at Mat Feltner's house, what does Jack do?

5. How did the townspeople feel about Rose McInnis and her husband?

6. What happened after Jack found Ruth struggling to breathe?

7. What kind of things does Wheeler see that remind him of Jack?

8. What happened to Ben not long after Jack paid him the money Jack borrowed from him?

9. What was the result of Jack's plans for Glad and Clara to take over the farm?

10. What happens in Chapter Nine when Jack goes back to his room?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Jack remembers being drunk and initiating a fight with Sim McGrother. When he returns to his house, he sees his barn on fire. The reader never learns whether or not McGrother set the barn on fire, but the implication is there that McGrother was responsible. With what the reader knows of Jack as a person, is that type of violence toward Jack warranted? Why would the author have chosen to introduce that level of hatred toward the protagonist? Could the author have included that incident as a way for the reader to feel sympathetic toward Jack, or was the event strictly symbolic of something else in Jack's life? Write an essay that addresses these issues.

Essay Topic 2

The Memory of Old Jack is a novel of historical fiction. Write an essay that explains what makes this novel historical fiction as opposed to simply fiction. Include a summary of the historical events and issues that this novel addresses.

Essay Topic 3

What is the author's point in writing this novel? Clearly, Wendell Berry was trying to get a message to Americans through Jack's story. Write an essay that explains what you think Berry's point is and whether or not he was effective in making the point.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 800 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample