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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. After leaving the gas station, what do the men that stop the father and son want?

2. How does the father get the men that approach them on the road to leave?

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

4. How far away are the father and son from where the father thought they actually were?

5. How does the son feel about the beach?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Give an example from Chapters 21-25 that shows the father's mistrust.

4. Describe how the son shows his increasing influence on the father in Chapter 31.

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

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

7. In Chapter 30, describe how the son acts like a child for the first time.

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

9. Explain why the father gives the son a gun after they see the people walking towards the house.

10. Describe what the father and son find in Chapter 35 that symbolizes the end of the son's innocence.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the theme of overprotection in the book and how it pertains to the father and son's relationship. Is the father's overprotection justified or needless?

Essay Topic 2

Examine the concept of trust and mistrust in the The Road, also explaining how it affects the son. The father's mistrust of others does keep them safe; however, does it also hold them back? Has the father's mistrust of others made the son naïve about their current situation? How has the father's mistrust of others made the son unhappy?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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