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| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Where has Ma seen the "most water she ever saw in one place" (19)?
2. What is unusual about the way Paps and Ma are dressed during the brothers' bath in Chapter 10, YOU BETTER COME??
3. Instead of immediately searching for the brothers after the bath, what do Paps and Ma do?
4. What role does the narrator play in the "magic of God" (25)?
5. What does Paps do when Ma yells at him, "This fucking big-dick truck" (64)?
Short Essay Questions
1. Why may Ma choose to call the narrator's family's new vehicle, "Big-Dick Truck"?
2. How does Paps coerce Ma into not being so irate about about the new truck?
3. Having the knowledge of Ma's grueling work schedule and unstable behavior, why might the narrator say after Ma awakes confused, "It was a Sunday, but no one told Ma that" (5)?
4. How does the reader know that Ma was a naive teenager when it came to sex as explained in Chapter 6, US PROPER?
5. What kind of support does Lina provide to the narrator's family when she comes to visit?
6. Why do the brothers dig up Old Man's garden?
7. What may the Quote provided before the Title Page relate to you about a theme or important motif of the novel?
8. At the end of Chapter 10, NIGHT WATCH, Paps says,"We're never going to escape this...Never" (60). What is he sure the narrator's family will not escape?
9. How does the narrator differentiate the brothers' behavior in relation to when Ma is awake or asleep?
10. As the brothers hid in the bathtub, Paps and Ma pretend to not know and do not immediately come to find them. What deep fears does the narrator share about this lack of attention?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Ma takes the brothers to a church service on the narrator's birthday and shows them a painting of monks. The narrator sees them as "men of hoods with clasped hands and eyes lifted upward" (13). The narrator is especially mesmerized by these men. Later on in the novel, the narrator confesses to Ma that he wants to be a monk. Why might the reader want to become a religious man? How would becoming a monk change the trajectory of his life and assist him in escaping his own demons?
Essay Topic 2
In Chapter 6, US PROPER, the brothers are told about their births from Ma. Ma explains how young she was and how Paps "tricked her." At the end of the Chapter, the boys encounter a pregnant woman and ask her unorthodox questions about her own pregnancy. The woman responds that the brothers need to behave properly. Why do you think this Chapter is titled, "US PROPER?" What is the relevance of the word "US" in the Chapter title, when it may have just been called, "BEING PROPER"?
Essay Topic 3
At the start of the novel, Ma asks the brothers to squirt tomato juice on her. Before being splattered, she compares the brothers appearance, covered in red tomato sliminess, with what the brothers looked like when they were born. Ma requests that the brothers, "Do it to me [Ma]?...Make me born" (6). What does this quote symbolize about Ma and her possible wants, needs, fears, state of mind, or stability? Provide specific examples to support your answer, as well as appropriate quotes.
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This section contains 1,407 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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