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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. Approximately how many caskets can someone choose from at the Lynch funeral home?

2. What medical topic did Sweeney broach when eating rainbow trout?

3. How many bridges once crossed the town's river?

4. In what decade of life did most of the Lynch men die?

5. To what Irish hero did Lynch compare Russ Reader?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did authors such as Jessica Mitford attack the funeral industry?

2. What did Lynch mean when he said that "in even the best of caskets, it never all fits"?

3. How did Lynch react to the body of the young man who shot himself in Chapter 9?

4. Describe Lynch's grandmothers.

5. What statement does a casket, versus a simple coffin, make?

6. Why did Janet Adkins ask Jack Kevorkian to assist in her suicide?

7. How does Lynch view a world in which certain deaths are acceptable (abortion, war, capital punishment)?

8. What perspective did Lynch reach on the night his mother was buried?

9. Why have more and more Americans opted for cremation, according to Lynch?

10. How does Lynch describe people's different approaches to living life at the end of Chapter 8 and which approach did Sweeney take?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Lynch's friend, Matthew Sweeney. What does his hypochondria say about his attitude toward life? Is he wasting or damaging his life in useless worrying? Or does his worrying simply indicate a deeper understanding of life and acceptance of the fact that death is inevitable? Does his hypochondria place limits on how he lives his life or does it free him to embrace with gusto the good aspects of life (such as fine food)?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the significance of the rebuilding of the Oak Grove bridge. Why was Mary Jackson so determined to have her funeral procession take the traditional route across the bridge to the cemetery? What sentiments did Lynch express in his poem for the dedication? How is a town affected by its proximity to the dead and its willingness to acknowledge, rather than hide, the dead? How were the older funeral processions (past houses rather than businesses) superior to the ones after the bridge collapsed? Why is it important that the dead be remembered?

Essay Topic 3

Lynch described the toilet as an invention that was essential in robbing us of our ability to deal directly with the less savory aspects of life, including the eventuality of death for us all. Do you agree with this? Does the fact that we no longer have to deal in an intimate manner with our life cycle make it more difficult to deal with that cycle? Has death become something we are embarrassed by? If so, how does that affect our attitude toward the dead?

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