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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. Which of the following does Octavia hand the narrator at her mansion?

2. Which of the following is the name of the narrator’s bellhop at Shanksted?

3. To which of the following does the narrator compare Nigel?

4. Which of the following professions does the narrator remark Jo Jo had had?

5. To which of the following does the narrator compare Penny?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jo Jo describe Polaire to the narrator when he first meets her?

2. To what does the narrator ascribe Supercargo’s trouble with authorities?

3. What expenses does the narrator note complicate securing Nigel’s procedure?

4. What prompts Nigel’s retreat into the art-supply closet at his school?

5. What scenario do the narrator and Nigel role-play while stuck in traffic on the way to Jo Jo’s?

6. What functions in the community does the narrator ascribe to the Chicken Coop?

7. What fantasy does Octavia note to the narrator?

8. How is Tyrod described when the narrator encounters him in Supercargo’s apartment?

9. What reasons does the narrator give for not having taken Nigel to their city’s team’s basketball games before the novel?

10. What accoutrements does the narrator note accompany his Roman centurion costume?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the following comment: “Memories could be questioned, distorted, forgotten. But a transcript could not. The physical act of remembering is a bulwark against insanity” (128). Is the comment correct? What in the novel and experience suggest as much, and how do they do so?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the novel, the narrator makes repeated reference to Grand Marnier, more than to any other alcohol. Explicate the significance of the liquor.

Essay Topic 3

What function does the narrator’s description of his grandfather (137) have in the novel? How is that function achieved?

(see the answer keys)

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