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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 Bobby tell Kline happened two year earlier at his grandmother's family house in Tennessee?

2. In the non-italicized section of Chapter 6, what book does Bobby read while he is on his dive job?

3. In the italicized section of Chapter 7, what does the girl say the suit is made from?

4. In the italicized section of Chapter 5, what does he switch his major to?

5. In the non-italicized section of Chapter 7, why does John say that he is in a brown study?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the girl go to the hospital? Is her visit to the hospital successful?

2. What happens to Bobby's pet while Bobby is away on the jack-up rig? How does it happen?

3. What happens to Bobby when goes to the jack-up rig?

4. Why does Bobby go back Wartburg, Tennessee after his conversation with Asher?

5. In Chapter 5, when Bobby meets Sheddan for lunch, at the beginning of their conversation how does Sheddan describe Bobby as an archetypal figure?

6. Who visits Bobby while he is living alone in a shack by the beach? Why does the person who visits Bobby say that he is there?

7. One night while Bobby is in Wartburg, Bobby mentions Alice's papers. Who is Alice? What happened to her?

8. Where does Bobby go to live for the winter after having his conversation with Kline about Bobby getting on with his life?

9. After recounting his time in Eastern State, why does John say that he is somewhat reluctant about Tulsa being back in his life?

10. Over the winter, Bobby has a dream of a doctor and a nurse showing him something and asking if Bobby wants to show that something to her. What is the thing that they are discussing and who is the "her"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Bobby thinks that he knows no other state of being than loneliness. Where does his loneliness come from? What happens to him on the jack-up rig when he is truly alone? Is there a distinction between the feeling of loneliness amongst people and the experience of truly being alone? What does Bobby say finally soothes his experience of solitude on the jack-up rig?

Essay Topic 2

In what ways is this book a story about God? How is God related to the idea of duality? Or Conscious and subconscious? Is the dark side of the unconscious also God? or is God only about the light? Are heaven and Hell two halves of the same coin? What do you think the author is trying to suggest to the reader?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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