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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 happens when Ma crawls down into the hole and lies down in Chapter 14, TRENCH?

2. Why do the brothers call themselves, "Ma's militia" (80)?

3. What memory does the narrator bring to mind at the end of Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I AM MADE?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. At the start of Chapter 16, WASN'T NO ONE TO STOP THIS, while playing a game, what do the brothers' imitation of Paps divulge about their sensibilities?

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

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

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

8. 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?

9. In Chapter 18, THE NIGHT I AM MADE (subsection: MIDNIGHT), why do Manny and Joel say that the narrator is "...fucked up..." (110)?

10. How does the headbanger's interpretation of the chalk circle being separated in a way that looks similar to a peace sign contribute to the story?

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

Manny has a symbolic dream at the end of Chapter 15, TRASH KITES. Examine pages 84-85, identify the symbol of "kites" and analyze how the dream exposes more about the nature of the brothers' situation.

Essay Topic 3

The three brothers all take turns lying in the hole Paps has dug. Each one has a very disparate experience of what it is like to lie down inside feeling the cold, hard dirt against their backs. How is the narrator's experience different from the other brothers? What does the narrator's state of mind say about his character in contrast to his brothers?

(see the answer keys)

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