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

2. After leaving the hidden cellar and stopping for the night, the son asks the father a question -- how does the father answer?

3. After the father and son hide from the people walking towards the nice house, why does the father give the son a gun?

4. Why does the father decide to camp on the road?

5. How does the son feel about the beach?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Describe three things that the father finds in Chapters 21-25 that he finds useful.

4. Give an example from Chapters 26-30 of where the author uses foreshadowing.

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

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

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

8. Recall an example from Chapter 31 that demonstrates how the father is dealing with the son growing up.

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

From the very beginning of The Road, the author does not give the father and son names, he gives them the generic labels of "the man or father" and "the boy or son."

Part 1) Why did the author choose not to give his characters names?

Part 2) How do the characters' basic names of "the man" and "the boy" affect the way the reader relates to them?

Part 3) How would the reader view the text if the characters had been given names?

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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