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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. What pounces on Renton in a hallucination in this chapter?

2. Who was Gi sleeping with when his wife discovered he was gay?

3. Why is Renton mortified by his mother in Courting Disaster?

4. In addition to Renton's father, who is appraising Renton severely in Bang to Rites?

5. What did Laura McEwan want to try with Spud when she took him home?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what state is Renton at the beginning of this chapter?

2. How does Davie take revenge on Alan Venters in Bad Blood?

3. How does the drug deal in Station to Station go down?

4. What does Renton find at Johnny Swan's in A Leg-Over Situation?

5. Describe Sick Boy's escapade in Deid Dugs.

6. In Bad Blood, how does Alan Venters and Davie's relationship develop?

7. How does the morning of There Is a Light That Never Goes Out end?

8. How does Billy Renton die?

9. How does Kelly take revenge on some business men in Eating Out?

10. How does Renton end up in an all-night porno theater in London Crawling?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In many respects, Trainspotting is less the story of a person or group of people than it is a tapestry of a community. Write an essay about the community of Trainspotting. How is the Leith fellowship in the novel a central character? What literary tactics does Welsh use to sweep through the full community? How do individuals emerge from the rabble and then disappear into it again?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the other drugs of the novel besides heroin. While heroin is presented as a life choice unto itself, what other stimulants do characters choose? How do Tommy, Begbie, and Billy add spice to their mundane lives? Discuss how Welsh presents these activities and substances, and whether he presents them as more or less dangerous than smack?

Essay Topic 3

In his quest for sobriety, Renton faces a number of obstacles, mostly of his own creation. In an essay, chart Renton's character arc in the novel. How does he begin the novel, and how does he end it? What tragedies and challenges meet him over the course of the narrative? What losses does he suffer, and what does he learn from this suffering?

(see the answer keys)

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