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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 Brother know is covering the casket that he makes Doodle touch?

2. When Brother finally decides to treat Doodle like a brother, where does he take him for the first time?

3. What are Doodle's last words?

4. What does Brother compare Doodle to when he finds Doodle dead?

5. What replaces the tree in the yard?

Short Essay Questions

1. What "training" plan does "Brother" come up with for Doodle, and what is his motive?

2. What changes in the narrator's life when Daddy makes Doodle a cart?

3. When Mama tells "Brother" that Doodle might be mentally disabled, what does "Brother" plan to do, and what changes his mind?

4. When Doodle and "Brother" take up telling one another stories to pass the time, what story does Doodle tell?

5. What images of death does the story open with?

6. What changes in Doodle's living situation when he learns to crawl?

7. How does "Brother" go about teaching Doodle to walk?

8. In what ways is the summer of 1918 hard on the family's crops?

9. How does Daddy react to the hurricane, and what emotions do his reactions cause in his sons?

10. When Doodle collapses during their "training," what conversation do he and "Brother" have and how does the conversation show their different attitudes about Doodle's disability?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is there any defense of "Brother's" actions where Doodle is concerned? Write an essay in which you consider both why "Brother" did what he did and what effects his actions had in Doodle's life. Be sure to use textual support for your claims.

Essay Topic 2

"Brother" feels ashamed of Doodle because of Doodle's physical differences from the average boy that "Brother" knows at school. What other kinds of unnecessary shame do people feel about their relatives or friends, or about themselves, based on differences from what they think is "normal"? Choose one of these to write about--explain what the prejudice is, what it can cause people to do and feel, and why people should actually not be ashamed of this "difference." Cite all of your sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Write a thesis-driven essay in which you analyze the setting of Old Woman Swamp. Consider questions like these: What events take place there? How do the boys feel while they are there? Why does it matter that it is a natural setting and that it is described as the only spot of beauty around them? Be sure to use textual evidence as support for your claims.

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