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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. Who is the only person who does not like the name "Doodle"?

2. Why does Doodle cry when Brother takes him to see the "only beauty" Brother knows (3)?

3. What does the doctor say about Doodle trying to move around?

4. Why does Mama make Brother return to the table when he is trying to get outside to see the ibis?

5. Why does Brother think that it is a good thing for Doodle to have a silly name?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. When they are eating lunch on the day the ibis appears, what argument are the brothers having?

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

4. What future do "Brother" and Doodle imagine for themselves at Old Woman Sawmp?

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

6. How does Doodle get his nickname?

7. Toward the end of summer, how does "Brother" say that he and Doodle are feeling about the training, and why do they keep going?

8. What are Chateau-Thierry, Amiens, and Soissons, and how do they relate to this story?

9. Where is the grindstone and what is its symbolic meaning?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay in which you analyze the use of World War I as a background for this story. Explain how thematic motifs in this story are related to World War I and how the story is made richer by this association. Be sure to use textual evidence to support your claims, and if you use outside sources, cite them in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

What has the narrator learned from his brother's death? Use evidence from the text to demonstrate how his attitudes and beliefs have either stayed the same or changed between the time when he was a child and the time when he tells this story.

Essay Topic 3

Does the family truly love and accept Doodle? Use quoted textual evidence to support an argument for or against this idea.

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