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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. Where does Jack stop on the way back from the airport after dropping off Bee?

2. How old is Denise?

3. What is the nickname for all males in the Browner family?

4. Who is the narrator of this novel?

5. Who is Bee's mother?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the chancellor suggest that Jack should change his persona, and what does he suggest?

2. Why does Jack think the Treadwells did not ask for help when they were lost?

3. Why does Murray come over to watch television with the kids?

4. Why do they bring Wilder to the doctor in Chapter 16?

5. Heinrich is playing chess with someone through letters. Describe his opponent.

6. Who makes up the group of teachers in the pop culture department?

7. Why does Bee say that the people who crash landed went through a bad experience for nothing?

8. Characterize Heinrich in terms of the discussion about the rain he has with Jack. What does DeLillo want us to understand about him?

9. Why is the chair of the department of American environments (the pop-culture department) opposed to Murray's establishment of Elvis studies?

10. What is the mood of the family when they are shopping at the mall?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the Airborne Toxic Event with a real crisis--Wilder's tricycle trip through traffic at the end of the book. How does DeLillo present each story event and characterize the family's reaction? What are the structural differences (as in, when each event happens in the chronology of the novel) and what do you think DeLillo wants the reader to think at these two times? What are the effects of these two crisis situations on the family members and what do they reveal about who these people are? What is DeLillo's larger point in contrasting such a small, personalized event with one that involved the whole town?

Essay Topic 2

Another critique of dominant society that DeLillo offers in this novel is Dylar, a fictional drug that is as absurd as it is plausible. Consider Dylar on its symbolic literal and symbolic levels, and discuss how this pharmaceutical affects these characters, and what DeLillo wants to say about a reliance on designer prescription drugs. Was DeLillo prescient? Based on your research into medications, are there drugs on the market like Dylar?

Essay Topic 3

Write an analytical essay that explains and contextualizes the ways this family communicates with each other. Do they all communicate in the same way? Does anyone in the family communicate differently? Be sure to include specific exploration of DeLillo's dialogue as a fictional technique that demonstrate what these various communications styles mean thematically.

(see the answer keys)

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