View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who helps Eli out of his legal problems in Chapter Forty?

2. How much money does the narrator say George Brown sold out of the oil business for in Chapter Forty-seven?

3. How many cattle were living in Texas alone by the year 1865, according to Eli in Chapter Fifty-nine?

4. Where does Peter’s wife go after their sons leave for the war in Chapter Twenty-four?

5. What is the date of Peter’s opening diary entry in Chapter Sixty-two?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where is Eli working in 1864? How is his home described in Chapter Forty-nine?

2. How does the author illustrate Jeanne’s political connections in Chapter Thirty-five?

3. How does Judge Black’s wife perceive Eli when he returns from the Rangers in Chapter Forty?

4. How does Eli return from Indian captivity to civilization in Chapter Thirty-one?

5. Discuss Jeanne’s relationship with motherhood, as seen in Chapter Thirty-eight. Does Jeanne enjoy being a mother?

6. What is represented symbolically by the feud between the McCulloughs and the Garcias and its aftermath in the novel?

7. Why do you think the Colonel wants Maria out of his home in Chapter Thirty-three?

8. How is the character of Ulises Garcia introduced in Chapter Fifty-seven? What is Ulises’s objective?

9. Why do you think that Maria tells Peter about the curse on the Garcia family in Chapter Forty-two?

10. How is Jeanne affected by Hank’s death in the novel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explore and discuss the themes of “alienation” and “morality” in the novel. In what ways do each of the three narrator/protagonists face alienation in the course of the story? What moral decisions are made by these characters, and upon what is their morality based?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the characters of Jeanne McCullough and Eli McCullough in the novel. How are Jeanne and her great-grandfather alike? How do they differ? What kind of relationship did Jeanne have with the Colonel before he died?

Essay Topic 3

Examine Peter McCullough’s account of the conflicts between the McCullough and Garcia families. How does Peter’s account of the events differ from his father’s? Who do you think is relating the truth of the matter? Why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 944 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample