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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 is J.P.'s real name?

2. What kind of head covering does the landlord wear?

3. How does Tiny fall at the beginning of the story?

4. When does J.P. officially become a chimney sweep?

5. Who takes J.P. to the treatment facility?

Short Essay Questions

1. Give an example of a character feeling stigmatized.

2. In the section about the landlord, what does the narrator's nakedness represent?

3. What is the significance of the way Roxy is dressed on New Year's Day?

4. Give an example of hopelessness in the story.

5. What is J.P.'s wife a symbol of?

6. Why is the narrator's girlfriend's son "mouthy"?

7. What economic class do you think the narrator is from and why?

8. How does the narrator feel about his girlfriend?

9. Give one example of a character in the story being self-deprecating.

10. Why is the narrator so enthralled by J.P.'s stories?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare how humility and arrogance are used in the story.

Essay Topic 2

How do compassion and forgiveness figure into the story?

Essay Topic 3

Many details in the story are vague, while others are very precise. For example, J.P. is "eighteen or nineteen" when he meets his wife, but he remembers exactly what she is wearing. Explore how the author alternately uses vague and precise details and why.

(see the answer keys)

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