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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 Howie buy to go with his coffee after his subway revelation?

2. When Howie moves into an apartment he discovers the therapeutic properties of what?

3. What is Howie's first footnote in Chapter 7 about?

4. Who else rode the escalator with Howie and his mom?

5. Howie's fifth major advance has to do with _____.

Short Essay Questions

1. Why has Howie mostly given up drinking milk?

2. How does Howie celebrate what he considers to be the realization that he is an adult?

3. What is Howie's feeling about ice cube trays?

4. What is the treat that Howie gives himself after making a resolution to not get carried away by nostalgia?

5. How many of Howie's escalator memories come from his childhood?

6. Howie does Howie's shoelace break?

7. What are Howie's observations about shoes and feet at work?

8. Why does Howie consider the purchase of a rubber stamp to be one of his advancements?

9. How does Howie describe the experience of opening a package of shirts from the dry cleaners?

10. What is Howie's focus in Chapter 3?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the climax of the book in Chapter 14? How does this tiny moment define the entire novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the aesthetic distance created in the novel and the reader's experience of spending the entire time inside Howie's thoughts.

Essay Topic 3

Is Howie a purveyor of truths that are too often ignored? Or is he a self-centered young man who spends too much time wrapped up in his own thoughts? Does Howie have redeeming characteristics.

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