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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. Henry Crick, Tom's father, is obsessed with one question about Freddie's death that he repeats over and over again. What is it?

2. What does Ernest Atkinson do that marks the first step in his family's economic decline?

3. Who hunted in Greenwich Park, where Tom and Mary sit in the evenings with their dog?

4. Johannes Schmidt, whose theory about eels and their mating habits is considered the most accurate one, thought that eels mate where?

5. Which of the following does NOT draw Mary and Tom closer together?

Short Essay Questions

1. In chapter 10, Tom Crick explains that he thinks the most important question is the question "why?" How does he use Louis XVI's fate to illustrate that point?

2. In chapter 13, Tom Crick uses a pun on the word "histrionics" to explain his feelings. What is that pun and what is its significance?

3. Chapter 26 is a long dissertation by Tom Crick about the mating habits of the eel. Recall three theories about how eels procreate that naturalists have advanced over the millennia.

4. In chapter 1, the narrator describes the Crick family's relationship with the Fens how?

5. In chapter 17, tells a version of the love story between Harry Crick and Helen Atkinson. How did they meet?

6. Chapter 9 details the rise of the Atkinson family through various activities and involvements. After Tom Atkinson marries Sarah Turnbull. Sarah becomes a pivotal character in the Atkinson story. How?

7. In chapter 21, Tom Crick asks, "when the past tries to demolish itself, how do you demolish the past?" What is he getting at?

8. In chapter 3, the narrator discusses the history of the Fens in eastern England and human attempts to drain them and make them fit for agriculture. "Strictly speaking," the narrator says what about the effort to "reclaim" the Fens?

9. In chapter 24, Tom, Dick, Freddie Parr, Mary Metcalf, and a few other kids are playing together near the water. What is the importance of the eel to all the events that transpire afterwards?

10. In chapter 17, Tom Crick discusses his difficulties in trying to marry Mary Metcalf. What are the sources of those difficulties?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The idea that the landscape of the Fenlands, the River Ouse, the personalities of the characters, and the course of history are closely intertwined plays a major role in Graham Swift's novel Waterland. Describe the landscape as Swift relates it and then choose three characters whose personalities and fate appear to be tied to the nature of the Fenlands. Discuss how that relationship plays out in the decisions and accidents that shape their life. Analyze whether Swift's view of the Fenlands and its people holds up, given the examples you have just described.

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the novel Waterland, the narrator Tom Crick uses fairy-tale language like "once upon a time" and references to supernatural beings like ghosts and witches while he recounts history. Using specific examples from the novel, deduce why Tom Crick does so. Discuss why he feels justified in mixing history and fairy tales.

Essay Topic 3

One major conflict in Graham Swift's novel Waterland is the one between the narrator, Tom Crick, and the headmaster of the school where Tom teaches, Lewis Scott. Using specific examples from the book, show what the four root causes of that conflict are--a conflict about personality, a conflict about the school's reputation, a conflict about teaching style, and a conflict about the usefulness of teaching history. Analyze the differing visions of the future that Tom and the headmaster seem to harbor and the implications of each of those visions for the future of society.

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