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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. How is the weather when the father and son reach the city?

2. After finding the items from the cart, what does the boy have a bad dream about?

3. After the father and son flee the woods and find their cart, why is the boy struggling to walk?

4. What does the boy find when they take things from the cart?

5. How does the father recognize their destination?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain what happens in Chapter 16 when a little boy comes up to the son.

2. Give an example that demonstrates the father's stubbornness and how he has somewhat lost touch with reality.

3. Give an example from Chapter 11 where the father demonstrates his love for his son.

4. Describe how the son is more capable of surviving than his father.

5. At the beginning of Chapter 11, describe where the father and son bathe and what they eat for dinner.

6. Explain what the father does in Chapters 11-15 that accentuates his paranoia, citing an example.

7. Describe how the author creates a sparse, bleak feeling at the beginning of the novel.

8. Explain what is revealed in Chapter 15 about the father's wife.

9. Recall examples from Chapters 1-5 that demonstrate how the father tries to protect the son, and how the son tries to protect the father.

10. Describe two things that the father and son see along their journey in Chapters 16 through 20.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the father's psychological state and how it pertains to the story. How does his mental state affect the decisions that he makes? Are these decisions helping or hurting himself and his son?

Essay Topic 2

Examine the theme of hope throughout the novel: hope for a better world, hope that there are still good people out there. Give some examples from the text that demonstrate the father and son's hope. How is the story ended with a hint of hope? How can hope for a better tomorrow encourage someone through a hard time?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the use of description in The Road. Discuss how the author uses narration, dialogue, and imagery to bring his novel to life, citing examples from the text. Compare the description in this novel to another novel the class has read.

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