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. In the opening of Chapter 2, NEVER-NEVER TIME, why are the brothers wearing raincoats?

2. At the start of the narrative, what age does the narrator turn?

3. Whys is Ma upset that Paps gets a new truck for the family?

4. What does the narrator hope Paps and Ma will do after the brothers' hide from them in Chapter 10, YOU BETTER COME?

5. What does the narrator believe Paps is really doing when he punishes his sons?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do the narrator and Joel hide in a crawlspace when Paps returns home after being gone for many days?

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

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

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

5. Why do the brothers dig up Old Man's garden?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. After Ma asks the brothers if they think it is funny when men beat women, the narrator retreats to a window and looks into he sun and says, "I could not blind myself" (16). How does this statement contribute to the nature of the narrator's desires?

9. At the start of Chapter 10, YOU BETTER COME, how does Paps show an expression of regret when he returns to the family's home?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

While at the Lake, Ma asks the narrator how come he is unable to swim, which surprises him, because Ma should be well aware about an earlier incident when the narrator nearly drowned. The narrator considers, "She asked the question as if she was meeting me for the first time...as if it had only just now occurred to Ma how odd it was that I was here, clinging to her and Paps..." (20). What does the narrator's confusion reveal about his relationship with Ma?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,331 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample