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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 Ziegler find he can understand, once he take the pill?

2. What did Darren see as a metaphor for the barrier between waking and sleeping?

3. What does Darren’s mother complain about?

4. How did Darren’s gun lead to him getting stitches?

5. Where would Darren put the things he had dreamed about and found?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator say that Darren uses chants?

2. How does the narrative tone change when Bob Dole enters the high school where the debate is taking place?

3. How did fame change things for Jane?

4. What is the setting for the first full chapter, after the brief prologue?

5. How does the narrator’s perspective shift as he describes Adam’s return to shore and the process of reuniting with Amber?

6. How does Jonathan describe his relationship with Ziegler?

7. What happens in the Herman Hesse story Jonathan talks about?

8. How does the narrator characterize Adam’s role in the debate team?

9. What was the memory Sima helped Jane uncover?

10. What did Jonathan find captivating about the Duccio Madonna and Child painting in the Met?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Where is the emotional heart of The Topeka School? Is it centered in power, or meanness or fairness or kindness? What are the main centers of the novel, if there is not just one? What is the relationship between the emotional centers of The Topeka School? How does the book define the relationship between its centers?

Essay Topic 2

How are gender role differences represented in The Topeka School? How are men and women represented, and how do the characters understand the differences between the men’s work and women’s work? How does the author shed light on these terms, or throw them into question?

Essay Topic 3

Who is the audience for The Topeka School? What is the ideal reader for The Topeka School likely to think about the book’s main topics? How does this book try to affect the reader? What is this book trying to teach its reader?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,176 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample