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

2. Why doesn't Jack recognize Andy?

3. How did Jack feel on the day he paid off the mortgage to the bank?

4. Where is Andy from?

5. How do the people who gather remember Jack?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kind of burial does Mat know Jack would have wanted to have?

2. What does Andy begin thinking about as his conversation with Jack comes to a lull?

3. After his accident on the flooded roadway, what had Jack decided to do?

4. How did people pay their respects to Jack at the Felter's house?

5. Why does Wheeler go to Jack's farm?

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

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

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

9. What happened between Jack and Rose following Jack's decision that he made after the accident on the flooded road?

10. What significant event occurred in Jack's life after Rose's death?

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

One of Jack's memories is of Will Wells, a black man hired by Jack to help work on Jack's expanded farm. It bothers Jack that Will will always be working to help further Jack's economic status and never for his own farm. This is a result of the times. Black men, though not slaves anymore, did not typically have the means to purchase their own land. Write an essay that addresses race as an issue in the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Summarize the plot of the novel, focusing on the events occurring in the present as the author is writing. Then, summarize the plot of Jack's life using his recollections to guide you. Are the two of those plot summaries similar to one another? Do they parallel one another in any way?

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