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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 does Gunnar feel about the police in his new area?

2. Where does Wolfgang move after he is fired?

3. In what subject is Nick Scoby most interested?

4. What kind of ritual do the Gun Totin' Hooligans have to honor dead members?

5. What position does Compton have in the Civil War?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Psycho Loco upset when he comes to Gunnar's house in Chapter Five?

2. What does Gunnar's elementary school emphasize?

3. Where have Gunnar and his family moved and what kind of neighborhood is it?

4. Where does Gunnar's father work, what does he do and what does Gunnar notice when he visits his father at work?

5. What is one of Gunnar's favorite past times from a young age and what is he known for among his friends?

6. What happens when Gunnar meets Nick and some of Nick's friends for lunch?

7. What does Gunnar's mother tell her children about their ancestor Euripides?

8. How did the Gun Totin' Hooligans come to be a gang?

9. What is at the top of the hill from Gunnar's neighborhood?

10. What happens to Gunnar the morning after they move to a new neighborhood and his mother tells him to go get breakfast?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze the theme of growth in The White Boy Shuffle. Consider the following questions as you write: What characters are most concerned with growth? Why? What are some symbols of growth? Symbols of rigidity? What characters seem rigid?

2. Trace and analyze the theme of individual freedom in The White Boy Shuffle. Which characters struggle with this issue? Why? Which characters seem to possess individual freedom? Why?

3. Trace and analyze the theme of tradition in The White Boy Shuffle. What is Gunnar's view of tradition? Gunnar's mother? Nick's? Gunnar's father. Why is tradition important to some characters? Is anyone willing to abandon traditional viewpoints? Who? What are the positive and negative sides to holding fast to tradition?

Essay Topic 2

The White Boy Shuffle could be said to be a "bildungsroman" of Esi. Discuss the following:

1. Define the concepts "bildungsroman" and "coming of age."

2. Thoroughly trace and analyze The White Boy Shuffle as a bildungsroman of Gunnar. Give specific examples. What does Gunnar learn? How has he changed? Is the change for the better?

3. Thoroughly trace and analyze The White Boy Shuffle as a black power story. Give specific examples. What does Gunnar learn? What does Nick learn? What would blacks say about Gunnar's actions?

Essay Topic 3

The counselor was shocked that a black student could get the high SAT scores that Gunnar made.

1. Refute or defend the following statement: Stereotypes about people are generally true. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. How do you think stereotyping or generalization in schools can affect students? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. The only statement that can be true about a population is if that population consist of only one person. Discuss this statement in view of the counselor stereotyping black students.

(see the answer keys)

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