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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 is the number of bedrooms the narrator, Penny, and Nigel have in their suite at Shanksted?

2. Which of the following does the narrator note his company serves?

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

4. Which of the following does Polaire give Tyrod?

5. Which of the following does the narrator add to his mother’s fried chicken mix?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the basic plan the narrator and Jo Jo have to get material for Octavia’s campaign?

2. What fantasy does Octavia note to the narrator?

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

4. What signs of shabbiness does the narrator note about the Tiko?

5. What after-school activities is Nigel involved in at the beginning of the novel?

6. What attractions does the narrator note Shanksted offers?

7. What problems does the narrator note in the Shanksted map?

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

9. How does the narrator describe Pavor when he first appears in the narrative?

10. What reasons does the narrator give for having distanced himself from Supercargo?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is the narrator ultimately a sympathetic character? How or how not?

Essay Topic 2

Consider the following comment:

What was it about people who were late of the Motherland [Africa]? There was something about the cant of their cheeks and noses that made them instantly recognizable in relief to run-of-the-mill African Americans like myself. I guessed that people like this nurse’s ancestors were history’s victors, the lucky souls who had avoided the Middle Passage and miscegenation. Coffee never diluted by creamer (151).

Is the narrator’s assertion of luckiness accurate? What in the novel and in documented history suggests that it is or is not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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