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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 the narrator do after receiving Fanshawe's letter?

2. What is the name of the private detective who had worked for Sophie?

3. What is the woman's reaction to the conversation she has with Black in the restaurant?

4. What name does Blue use to introduce himself to Black during their second conversation?

5. What varsity sport did Fanshawe play for a brief period in his sophomore year before suddenly quitting the team?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the narrator struggle with showing Fanshawe's letter to Sophie? What does he do instead?

2. What does the manuscript contain that Blue takes from Black's apartment after beating him up? How does the story end?

3. Why does Fanshawe continue to address his letters to Ellen even after her breakdown? To whom are the letters meant to communicate?

4. What is unusual about the letter that the narrator supposedly receives from Fanshawe? How does this quirk help to convince the narrator of the letter's veracity?

5. What does the narrator learn about Fanshawe through his interviews with Fanshawe's friends and family? What is he looking for that he does not find?

6. What does Blue want to do when he thinks about the future Mrs. Blue? How does this make him realize that he is changing?

7. What does Fanshawe do during his trip to the cemetery with the narrator on the day of his father's death? What does his action remind the narrator of from their early childhood?

8. When Black speaks to Blue about Walt Whitman, what two internal organs does he compare? What do these viscera have to do with the profession of writing?

9. In The Locked Room, what is Sophie Fanshawe's condition when her husband goes missing? Describe the trajectory of her emotional reaction to his disappearance.

10. In the early period of the case, what two extreme attitudes does Blue experience? How does each of these extreme conditions make him feel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identity is a major theme throughout The New York Trilogy. Give one example where identity is confused or a new identity is assumed from each of the three stories. What does this confusion about identity imply about the author's view of reality?

Essay Topic 2

Authorship and authority are major themes in City of Glass. Compare the role of Cid Hamete Benengeli in Don Quixote to the role of Quinn in City of Glass. How do these fictional sources reinforce the author's ethos in each case?

Essay Topic 3

Letters are important objects in The New York Trilogy. How do these objects impulse the action of the narrative? Give two specific examples from The Locked Room.

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