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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. After several hard days in Havre, who does the narrator decide he has had enough of?

2. After giving money to the woman in Havre, what does the narrator watch her children do as he waits?

3. How many years are between Yellow Calf and the old woman?

4. Who first takes the narrator to see his grandfather?

5. After sleeping with Marlene, what does the narrator find is wrong with his face?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the narrator goes out to visit Yellow Calf the second time, what does he learn about his grandmother?

2. When the narrator goes out to visit Yellow Calf the second time, how is his visit significant to the story?

3. How is the narrator treated by the people who give him a ride home from Havre, and how is that typical of his experiences with outsiders?

4. While the narrator is digging his grandmother's grave, what does he remember about his father?

5. What does the narrator think about while struggling to rescue the cow at the end of the book?

6. When Lame Bull gives the eulogy for the old woman, what is it like?

7. Why does First Raise take the narrator to visit Yellow Calf and why is that significant?

8. After spending several days in Havre, how does the narrator go about returning home, and why?

9. When the narrator returns home from Havre, how does he feel?

10. After the old woman's death, the narrator walks out on the plains alone to think. What significant event occurs while he is out there?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is the narrator a sympathetic character? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Though First Raise is already dead when the story begins, what role does he play? How do his actions and example affect the narrator, both in life and in death?

Essay Topic 3

At the beginning of the novel, the narrator loses his electric razor and his rifle to a woman he claims to care nothing about. How is this symbolic?

(see the answer keys)

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