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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. In the italicized section of Chapter 4, what does the girl say that photons are not?

2. In the non-italicized section of Chapter 4, where in the basement does Bobby find what he is looking for?

3. In the non-italicized section of Chapter 1, what does Bobby realize is missing from the plane?

4. In the non-italicized section of Chapter 1, what company makes the downed plane?

5. In the non-italicized section of Chapter 2, what does Bobby think is odd that is missing from the morning newspaper?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Oiler say that he regrets the most about his time in Vietnam?

2. While Bobby is sitting in the cathedral, what does Bobby remember his sister saying about the afterlife and God?

3. At the beginning of Chapter 4, what appears in the night at the girl's window that makes her whisper Bobby's name?

4. What are Bobby and Oiler doing off the coast of Mississippi as the non-italicized section of Chapter 1 opens?

5. Of the Kid's cohorts, who is the only one that the girl cares about? Why does the kid not summon her for the girl?

6. What part does Bobby's father play in World War II?

7. Who is the bathless one and what does he do?

8. Who does the hunter find on his walk through the woods?

9. How does the Kid feel about almost all the acts that he brings up? How does he generally end them that gives a clue as to how he feels?

10. How does the Kid talk? What is the reader's impression of the Kid from the ways he talks and the language that he uses.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is your experience of Alicia's conversation with Miss Vivian about the crying babies? What are the different reasons that Alicia and Miss Vivian give for why the babies are crying? Do any of these reasons seem plausible? What do babies represent for humans? What does it mean for babies, who are so vulnerable and innocent to be beset by dangers or be filled with some deep dislike for their surroundings? What do you think the point is of this conversation? Does it have a point? How does it make you feel as a reader?

Essay Topic 2

Bobby has two more experiences of solitude. How are these experiences different that his experience on the jack-up rig? How do the language and cadence give the reader a feeling that the other two experiences of solitude have a different quality than the experience Bobby has aboard the jack-up rig?

Essay Topic 3

What are the main themes of the story? How does the author set up and continue the discussion of those themes throughout the book?

(see the answer keys)

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