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. To which of the following does the narrator compare himself?

2. Which of the following does the narrator claim was his mentor in law school?

3. Which of the following is the height of the Sky Tower?

4. Which of the following shapes does Penny draw on the narrator’s hand?

5. Which of the following is the name of a tour character at Shanksted?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator recall of Tyrod’s life with his son?

2. What reason does the narrator give for misliking going to court, despite his skill therein?

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

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

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

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

7. What conditions does Penny attempt to impose on the narrator for traveling to the company retreat with him?

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

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

10. What options does the narrator outline for answering a question about his opinion as “the onliest black guy in the room” (8)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What purpose is served by the scene in which the narrator, Penny, and Nigel tour Shanksted Plantation, just before Nigel goes missing (50-54)? What in the text and experience indicates that purpose? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

The narrator muses that “It sometimes felt like we [the narrator and Jo Jo] were the only people in the world who experienced the whiplash and loss of those years, because no one else talked about that era. Not that Jo Jo and I did” (82). What similar era exists in your life? What makes it similar? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Early on, the narrator notes the contents of Octavia’s library, which include Eyes without a Face, The Hip Hop Ontologist’s View of Leda and the Swan, and Blackstone’s Law; Octavia notes that the books are “real, but mainly for effect” (8). What effect are they likely to have, and why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 742 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample