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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 his escapades in Havre, who does the narrator ride with on his way home?

2. While pulling the cow out of the mud, what does the narrator realize about his feelings toward Lame Bull?

3. After the white traveler is taken away from Havre, who does the narrator wish he could find?

4. While hitching a ride home from Havre, what kind of plant does the family stop their car next to for the girl to run behind?

5. When the narrator finds the cow drowning in the mud, of what does she remind him?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the narrator walks out on the plains after his grandmother's death, what does he tell Old Bird?

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

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

4. When Ferdinand Horn and his wife come to offer condolences, why does the wife seem so interested in the narrator's girlfriend and how does the narrator react?

5. 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?

6. After the narrator spends several days in Havre, what does he finally want to do, and why?

7. Based on the behavior of the white traveling man, what may have happened if the narrator had driven him over the border?

8. While Mose and the narrator are herding cattle, what contributes to Mose's death?

9. At the very end of the book, what does the narrator determine to do and how is this different from the beginning of the book?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the goal of the main character? Toward the end of the novel, does the narrator accomplish his goal? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

What is significant about the establishments the narrator chooses to enter when he is in town? How do his choices later contribute to his wish for his shadow to disappear and for him to disappear with it?

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This section contains 810 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample