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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 much money is hidden in George's workbench downstairs in Chapter 4?

2. What food does Megan prepare for Howard before she leaves to care for her mother over Christmas in Chapter 4?

3. What color does the green sea turn in the excerpt from Chapter 4 called "Homo Borealis"?

4. What word used in Chapter 3 means concerned with relatively minor, irrelevant, or superficial aspects of something?

5. What does Howard's mother cook for breakfast the morning after Howard's father has been taken away in Chapter 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you describe George's relationship with his family as he passes from life in Tinkers?

2. How is Howard's death described in Chapter 4? What is this description juxtaposed against?

3. What is symbolic about the descriptions of Reverend Crosby fading from Howard's vision in Chapter 3, Part 1?

4. Where does Howard go to search for his father after Reverend Crosby's disappearance in Chapter 3?

5. Where does Megan go during the Christmas holidays in 1953? What does Howard do after she leaves?

6. When is the last time George awakens before he dies? What does he relate after awakening?

7. What is epilepsy? How was this disorder treated in the 1920s/1930s?

8. What alias does Howard Crosby take on after he leaves his family? Where does he go?

9. What characters are introduced during Howard's journey to search for his father in Chapter 3, Part 2?

10. Who comes to visit George in the opening of Chapter 4? What does this character do during her visit?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and analyze the characters of Reverend and Mrs. Crosby in Tinkers. How old are Rev. Crosby and Mrs. Crosby in Howard’s flashbacks to his father’s mental deterioration? What kind of relationship do they have with their son? What do you think are the causes of Reverend Crosby’s collapse?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the types of hospital care that someone like Howard might have received at an establishment such as the Eastern Maine State Hospital in 1929. How many facilities such as this were there in the country?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author’s literary allusions in Tinkers to The Scarlet Letter. When was The Scarlet Letter written? What subject matter is the story focused on? Where did Nathaniel Hawthorne supposedly attend college with the hermit Gilbert in Tinkers? What similarities do you see between the subjects and themes of The Scarlet Letter and Tinkers? Why do you think the author chooses to allude to this novel in Tinkers?

(see the answer keys)

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