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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. At the beginning of Chapter 26, where do the father and son sleep?

2. How many days do the father and son stay in the nice house?

3. What do the father and son do the morning after the father finds the house and barn?

4. In Chapter 35, how is the son starting to change?

5. What does the son think is inside the nice house?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain what happens when the father and son find the old abandoned train -- analyze the father's actions.

2. Give an example from Chapters 21-25 that describes the son's naivety.

3. Describe how the father makes lamps before he and the son enter the hidden cellar.

4. Describe three things that the father and son find of use in Chapters 36-40.

5. Describe what the father and son find in Chapter 21 after the father breaks open a locked pantry door.

6. Recall how the father displays his paranoid attitude again while he and the son are staying in the hidden cellar.

7. Explain why the son returns to the fearful version of himself in Chapter 36, and use an example from the text.

8. Describe how the author generates credibility to the father's paranoia about the world.

9. Describe how the father treats the old man that he and the son meet in Chapter 31.

10. Describe one example from Chapters 36-40 that demonstrates how the father is becoming more reliant on the son's opinion.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In The Road, the cities are deserted or destroyed, plant life is gone, animals have disappeared. Something catastrophic has happened to the world. Examine the conflict of Person vs. Nature, citing examples from the text that demonstrate how the characters are up against the forces of nature.

Essay Topic 2

The father insists that there are good and bad guys in the world, leading the reader to believe a "bad" group of people are responsible for the destruction. How are good people set apart from bad people in the story? What are the major characteristics that good people have that bad people don't? How does the father distinguish between the good and bad people?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the theme of repetition of problems and how it sets the tone for the book. How does the repetition of these problems create a bleak feeling throughout the book? How does this repetition help make their situation seem hopeless? Cite examples from the text.

(see the answer keys)

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