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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 non-italicized section of Chapter 3, who does Bobby go downriver with?

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

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

4. In the italicized section of Chapter 4, who does the carpentry to fix up the girl's room?

5. In the italicized section of Chapter 4, who is coming to visit the girl in two weeks?

Short Essay Questions

1. In the beginning of Chapter 2, What is Bobby thinking about as he sits in the cathedral?

2. What is Oiler's attitude about his time in Vietnam?

3. 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.

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

5. What happens to Bobby that ends his time racing cars?

6. Before the girl ends her life in the Wisconsin woods, who comes to see her a final time in her room in Chicago?

7. Where does Bobby move in after taking all his belongings out of his apartment?

8. In Chapter 2, why does Bobby rent a boat and sail around the little cluster of islands off the coast of Mississippi?

9. What does Debussy say that she wants in regard to gender?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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

Essay Topic 2

Do you think that there is an actual missing passenger? What do you think the missing passenger represents? Can the missing passenger be a metaphor or a symbol that has multiple meanings?

Essay Topic 3

There are guys in suits who question Bobby, and his bank account is frozen by the IRS. How do these elements serve the story? How do they serve the author's intentions for the story? How do they serve to suggest a life that is out of Bobby's control? How do they serve to show ideas of struggle and surrender? How do these ideas relate to the reader's world?

(see the answer keys)

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