View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Tom's parents meet?

2. What is NOT one of the names the Atkinsons give their special-occasion ales?

3. How does Tom react to Mary's statement that "everything has changed" with Freddie's death.

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

5. How old is Sarah Atkinson when she dies?

Short Essay Questions

1. In chapter 50, Harry Crick is bed-ridden in Tom's and Mary's first house in Gildsey. What made him ill?

2. In chapter 19, Tom Crick describes the beginning of the decline of his grandfather, Ernest Atkinson. Discuss what caused that decline.

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

4. 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.

5. What is the surprise Tom Crick encounters when he stands up to speak at the end of chapter 48?

6. At the end of chapter 45, Tom and Dick have a conversation about Mary and her baby. What is the one thing Dick confesses to Harry, and what are the two things Tom tells Dick?

7. In chapter 4, what is the reasoning the headmaster Lewis Scott gives Tom Crick for laying Tom off and merging history with General Studies?

8. 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?

9. In chapter 48, what is the difficulty the headmaster runs into when he tries to announce Tom Cricks' retirement to the students at the school?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Graham Swift's novel Waterland, the narrator Tom Crick is a history teacher. He frequently interrupts his lessons to talk to his students about the meaning of history. At one point, he claims that history primarily teaches about human nature by teaching about humanity's mistakes. Using specific examples from the novel, examine how Tom supports that theory with the stories he tells. Recount at least two such mistakes from the novel and explore their implications. Analyze whether Tom successfully makes his case. If so, what is it about human nature that he is trying to show?

Essay Topic 2

A central tenet of Graham Swift's novel Waterland is that history has something circular about it. Using specifics from the novel, examine one example from the story that supports that idea. Explain the impact that circular nature of history has on how the novel unfolds. Analyze whether the narrator, Tom Crick, is projecting his own theory onto the story in this regard and why he might want to do so. Support your opinion with specific references from the book that show what sort of person Tom is and what his agenda might be.

Essay Topic 3

Religion is not an overt topic in Graham Swift's novel Waterland, but it certainly recurs as a theme. In particular, Tom Crick discusses religion in respect to two women: Gildsey's patron saint Gunnhilda and Tom's wife Mary. Using specifics and quotes from the novel, retrace the religious development those two women undergo in the novel and compare and contrast them.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,354 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample