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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 the narrator do in the theater at the museum in Chapter 17: NIAGARA?

2. What does the headbanger look like?

3. What does Joel say is the reason for Paps' digging a hole in the backyard?

4. How does Manny describe white magic in Chapter 16, WASN'T NO ONE TO STOP THIS?

5. Who do the brothers imitate while playing their chalk circle game in Chapter 16, WASN'T NO ONE TO STOP THIS?

Short Essay Questions

1. At the end of Chapter 16, WASN'T NO ONE TO STOP THIS, the narrator says, "Why won't you look at me, my brothers, why won't you take my eyes?" (97). Why does the other want his brothers to "take his eyes"?

2. What does the author's choice to intertwine the narrator's episode in the locker room while watching the pornographic video contribute to uncover the narrator's notion of sexuality?

3. Why does Manny claim that he wants to "reverse gravity" (85)?

4. What quote on Page 113 claims that the narrator believes his brothers have figured out that the narrator is "different"? Provide a quote.

5. What do you discover about the brothers' place in the neighborhood through the presentation on Page 90?

6. What do you believe is Ma's original intention when she takes the brothers to the park? How does the reader know that?

7. 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?

8. In Chapter 15, TRASH KITES, how does the reader know that the narrator feels differently from his brother Joel about watching Manny be beaten by Paps? What does this say about the narrator as a character?

9. How does the narrator react to seeing his journal in Ma's lap at the end of the novel?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the park, Ma feeds the ducks while the brothers wonder off onto a highway. They encounter a woman who is worried that the brothers are dangling their legs off a bridge. When the family leaves the park, Manny calls "a woman" a bitch, but it is unclear whether he is referring to the woman from the highway or Ma. According to the plot line of he novel, which woman do you believe Manny is making reference to and why? What specific aspects of the Chapter lead you to that conclusion?

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

Paps digs a "hole" in the backyard while the brothers watch from an upstairs window. The brothers debate whether it is a hole, trench, or grave. Why do the brothers see the hole as being more somber than what Paps' true intentions may be? What does Paps say that explains his own reasoning for the hole?

(see the answer keys)

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