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. What job does Paps finally get?

2. What does Old Man call the brothers as they eat the vegetables from his garden?

3. In the last paragraph of Chapter 10, YOU BETTER COME, what does the narrator imply the brothers "need" (51)?

4. What does Lina call Ma after arriving at the narrator's house?

5. In the crawlspace, the narrator asks Joel, "It's just going to be like this forever?" (43). What is the narrator referring to?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator differentiate the brothers' behavior in relation to when Ma is awake or asleep?

2. How do you know that the narrator and his brothers are ravenous for more life according to the first page of the novel?

3. Why does Ma not want the narrator to get older like his other brothers?

4. How do you know that the novel is being written in first-person?

5. What personality traits and behaviors are both implicitly and explicitly conveyed through the description of the brothers' behaviors in the opening Chapters? How do you come to these conclusions?

6. What may the Quote provided before the Title Page relate to you about a theme or important motif of the novel?

7. How does the narrator feel when Paps and Ma discover him after the narrator nearly drowns in the lake?

8. 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)?

9. Even though it is not explicitly mentioned in the novel, how does the author convey that Ma has been abused by Paps in Chapter 4?

10. What are some examples at the start of Chapter 12, BIG-DICK TRUCK that demonstrate the financial situation of the narrator's family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

During Paps' new job as a late night security guard, the brothers accompany him to work throughout the night. The narrator awakens in the middle of the night and has a profound conversation with Paps about why a light is trapped in a cage across the street. How does Paps' reasoning and response present a bigger link to the story and the meaning of being trapped? After reading the entire novel, how might this conversation produce deeper insight into the narrator's feelings and questioning that is not so easily seen from the initial incident?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 3, HERITAGE, Paps explains that the brothers are not Puerto Rican, white, or rich, but asks them to individually dance as if they belong to one of these cultural/racial/socioeconomic statuses. Why does Paps want the brothers to imitate all three types of heritage groups? What does Paps believe each group embodies by the way the brothers dance?

Essay Topic 3

Ma's co-worker, Lina, visits the narrator's house after Ma has not shown up to work for a few days. Lina shows great sympathy and intimacy toward Ma. How does Lina's response to Ma show a disparate way of how Ma has been treated by others? Why might the author have included this exchange in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,278 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample