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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 was the name of the ranch hand in the duel that Charlie and Eli watched?

2. How did Charlie and Eli think the Indian in Part II had died?

3. What did Charlie do the boy the brothers found with the abandoned wagons?

4. How did Eli feel when they left the boy at the stream in Part II?

5. Who was the Commodore's scout who has gone ahead of Charlie and Eli to San Francisco on the Hermann Warm job?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Eli tell Charlie he had dreams about becoming a shop keeper someday?

2. How did Eli know that Charlie was about to break some bad news to him after they left the Commodore's mansion and went to the Pig-King to drink?

3. Why did Charlie pull a gun on Doctor Watts, the dentist who lanced Eli's face?

4. What did Eli realize about how Charlie felt about killing the men whose tools he took to widen the window?

5. How did Eli try to break the tension with Charlie early on in their journey to California?

6. What change did the Commodore make to the job the Sisters Brothers were assigned to deal with Hermann Kermit Warm?

7. Why did Eli and Charlie kill the reddish-colored she-bear as they continued on their journey?

8. Why were the Sisters brothers unsettled by the old woman in the cabin early on in their journey?

9. What did Charlie and Eli do to Mayfield after they killed the trappers?

10. What was the trouble with the horses Eli references in the first chapter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the effect that reading Morris's journal, and the revelations about Morris's plans it revealed, in San Francisco had on Eli and Charlie. How do their different reactions to the journal's contents highlight their character differences?

Essay Topic 2

Why does Eli change his mind at the last minute and keep Tub instead of trading him in for the far superior black horse? Write an essay exploring this change of heart and what it says about Eli's core character traits.

Essay Topic 3

deWitt often employs dry humor in dark situations, as when Eli Sisters is discussing ending his killing career with his brother (243). What purpose do you think this humor serves in a novel dealing largely with serious and tragic themes? Write an essay explaining your answer, using specific references and examples of deWitt's humorous language from the text.

(see the answer keys)

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