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. What is Sylder doing as he drives away from the crash?

2. In what year was Marion Sylder born?

3. Where did Garland Hobie hid whiskey as a boolegger?

4. What does John Wesley do after his mother goes to sleep?

5. How does Sylder kill the man?

Short Essay Questions

1. What other possible explanation could there be for Sylder's driving fast to elude the police?

2. What are the circumstances in which Sylder once again encounters the old man?

3. What is life like now for Kenneth Rattner's widow and son, John Wesley, since Rattner is dead?

4. How does McCarthy set up the book's major irony in this chapter?

5. Why is the old man afraid of cats and what extreme measures has he taken to keep them at bay?

6. What does the old man recall about the day he discovered the corpse buried in the peach pit?

7. Where does Sylder dispose of the body and whose presence is he unaware of?

8. How does John Wesley acquire his animal traps?

9. What insight is revealed about Sylder's background?

10. How does the author give the first clue that Sylder is a bootlegger?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain the significance of the novel's title. What did the author mean by calling the book THE ORCHARD KEEPER? Cite an example to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

The author uses more than one theme in the novel. Identify at least two themes in the story and then cite an example to support each theme.

Essay Topic 3

Explain the concept of loneliness as it exhibits in the story. Which of the characters are lonely? Are they all lonely in some way? Explain the loneliness and the methods and attempts to overcome it.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,171 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample