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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. What does Paps do at the start of Chapter 13, DUCKS?

2. According to page 122, what part of the body is washed to "pay him [the narrator] the ultimate respect" (122)?

3. Who is the narrator illustrating at the start of Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I AM MADE, on Page 103?

4. What does the final chapter lead the reader to believe about the narrator's mental space?

5. How long has the narrator been going to the bus station in Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I WAS MADE?

Short Essay Questions

1. What doubts does the narrator have about why he wrote his personal longings in his journal?

2. Why is it unusual for the narrator to be dancing like a "mer-man prince" (100) at the museum theater in Niagara Falls?

3. What does Manny's dream about kites represent for the brothers and their futures? Provide a quote that shows your reasoning.

4. How does the narrator feel when Paps holds him over Niagara Falls? What might this narrator's intuition say about the narrator?

5. What is the difference between Paps' reasoning and the brothers' assumptions about Paps digging a hole in the backyard? How does the reader know this?

6. How does Ma feel after visiting the park? What statements or behavior show her feelings?

7. How do you know that the narrator and the bus driver have a sexual encounter? (Provide a quote.)

8. How does Paps comment about the narrator's dancing: "Goddamn, I got me a pretty one" (102) contribute to your understanding of Paps understanding of his son?

9. How does the narrator relate a stray cat's neglect of drinking milk they have given to her to Ma?

10. Why does the narrator believe that his family is so furious about what he has written in his journal?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The final Chapter, ZOOKEEPING is only one page long, but it is still one of the most moving. The narrator's perception of reality are ambiguous and scattered. Review the final chapter for clues about the mental state of the narrator. Summarize how the chapter provides closure, even though it is not explicitly written. How does the writing of the final chapter shift from previous chapters? What does the last line of the chapter represent about how the narrator is handling his situation in the psychiatric ward?

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

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?

(see the answer keys)

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