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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. At the start of Chapter 16, WASN'T NO ONE TO STOP THIS, how many sections do the brothers separate their sidewalk chalk circle into?

2. What is the narrator sick of doing after leaving the dumpster in Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I WAS MADE?

3. The last line of the narrator's final thoughts are, "Upright, upright, I say, I slur, I vow" (125). How may this line be interpreted?

4. What does the headbanger look like?

5. What about previous experiences in the novel may have led the author to title the last Chapter, ZOOKEEPING?

Short Essay Questions

1. After Paps leaves the narrator alone at museum, an older man ambiguously asks the narrator, "I guess you're a bit young for that. What about your folks?" (100). What are some implications that can be made about the old man's statement?

2. How do Paps and Ma choose to handle the discovery of the narrator's journal and having to send him to a psychiatric institution?

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

4. What does it say about the narrator when he ponders, "Who knows this mutt life, this race mixing? Who knows Paps?" (104) in Chapter 19, THE NIGHT I AM MADE?

5. What does the narrator claim is the closest to being "made" he has ever been while hiding in the bus station bathroom? What does this exploit reveal about the narrator's secret?

6. 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?

7. What "lie" does the narrator assume his brothers think about their futures while standing on the loading dock?

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

9. Why is Manny the first one to come out of the dark to face the headbanger after breaking a window of the headbanger's family camper?

10. How does the narrator react to seeing his journal in Ma's lap at the end 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

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 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.

(see the answer keys)

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