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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 the narrator say Hominy's work mostly consisted of in Chapter 6 (82)?

2. What is the case number for "Me v. the United States of America" (20)?

3. What is the name of the ghetto community on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles where the narrator grew up?

4. Whom does the narrator describe in Chapter 1 as "the bitch next door and my only true love" during his childhood?

5. Of "Little Scotty Beckett," the narrator says, "Scotty was a big-eyed Rascal who used to run with" whom, in Chapter 6 (84)?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator encounter Marpessa in Chapter 9? What emerges in their meeting?

2. Why does the black woman slap the narrator in the Prologue?

3. What happened on the occasions where the narrator attempted to emancipate Hominy?

4. What does the narrator remark about mottos in the Prologue?

5. Where does the narrator describe taking Hominy for "beatings" each Thursday?

6. How is Hominy Jenkins described by the narrator?

7. Why does the narrator construct a highway sign with the name Dickens on it?

8. What happened when the narrator's father attempted an experiment on bystander syndrome when the narrator was a child?

9. How is the character of King Cuz described?

10. What setting is established in the novel's Prologue? How is it described?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze and discuss the character of F. K. Me in The Sellout. What is this character's profession? How is his relationship with his son depicted? Do you think this character is portrayed as a protagonist or antagonist? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss the setting of Dickens, California. Where is the long-lost City of Dickens located? Why was the city "deleted"? Where are the boundaries of the city and what is its proximity to other locations described in the greater Los Angeles area?

Essay Topic 3

Why does the narrator seek out a "sister city" for Dickens? What are the results he receives? What three lost cities does the narrator resort to using as sister cities to Dickens?

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