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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. The first night out on the ocean, what appears in the water around the boat?

2. Who does Bompie look like?

3. What level does Uncle Dock say the gale is?

4. What does Uncle Dock injure in the wave?

5. When the winds pick up, what do the sailors do to the mainsail?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Stew and Mo argue about?

2. When the travelers arrive in Ireland, who are they able to reach by phone?

3. What seems different to Cody about the way Brian bugs Sophie, as they near Bompie's?

4. What does Sophie hear when Cody is actually asking about her harness?

5. What happens to the sails in the heavy wind?

6. What is the significance of the stops the boat makes before setting out to sea?

7. When the family comes to visit Bompie, how does he react?

8. What gift does Cody give his father?

9. What injury does Cody sustain in the large wave that hits the boat?

10. How does Sophie feel about the ham radio?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The novel centers around memory and remembering. Discuss these elements in the novel.

1) How is Bompie's failing memory during his illness important to the story? Why does Sophie want to keep Bompie's memory alive through his stories?

2) How is memory unreliable in the novel? How are Sophie and Bompie's memories both unreliable in different ways?

3) How does memory drive the characters? How do Sophie's repressed memories drive her? How do Dock's memories of Rosalie drive him?

Essay Topic 2

The characters in the novel all deal with tragedy and loss. Discuss dealing with tragedy in the novel.

1) How does Dock deal with the loss of Rosalie? How is this loss a tragedy for Dock?

2) How does Sophie deal with the loss of her parents?

3) What other tragedies do characters deal with? Is Stew's loss of his job a tragedy? Does Cody deal with tragedy?

Essay Topic 3

The Wanderer deals with dangerous situations, and the characters all face death. Discuss the life-and-death struggles in the novel.

1) How do the characters change when they're faced with life-and-death situations? How does Cody change? How does Sophie change? How do the uncles change?

2) How do the characters respond differently to danger toward themselves and toward others?

3) What do life-and-death encounters reveal about the characters' relationships? How do characters' relationships change during the life-and-death struggle of the storm?

(see the answer keys)

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