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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. How many years after the Snowball did Darren’s classmates push a girl toward him and tell him to kiss her?

2. When Adam understood the language of products, what did he understand them to be saying?

3. How does the narrator characterize Darren’s skating ability at the roller rink?

4. What fueled Darren’s rage when the girl his friends pushed on him called him a homophobic slur?

5. What was Darren’s inclusion a joke on, according to Adam?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who are the Phelpses and what was their relation to Jane Gordon?

2. How does Jonathan describe the conditions where he grew up in Taiwan?

3. How did Adam lose his L-D debate?

4. What cause Jane to consciously redirect her thoughts about Adam’s behavior, and how did she do so?

5. What advice did Evanson give Adam at the debate tournament in Minneapolis?

6. What observations does Adam make about American culture when he is in the supermarket with his mother and grandmother?

7. In what condition did Darren wake up at Clinton Lake?

8. How does Adam characterize his circle’s relationship with Darren?

9. In what ways did Adam and his friend shift their aggression into the realm of language?

10. What is the importance of the purple cow?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify the most important plot points in The Topeka School. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

Essay Topic 2

Write an evaluative review of The Topeka School. What is this book’s place in our culture? Who will find this book most useful? What are its uses? What are its limitations?

Essay Topic 3

What is the weakest part of this novel? Of the different weak sections, which gives you the most insight in to the author’s theory of what a novel is, and what it ought to do? How would you have suggested strengthening these weak passages?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,081 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample