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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 the description of Doran's "inexpertly folded tie" intended to accomplish (189)?

2. At the AA meeting, what does the man say he was doing when he lost his fingers?

3. Besides money, what does Arm take from the horse farm?

4. Why does Siobhán dismiss the rule of anonymity at the meeting?

5. Why is the source of Jack's behaviors that puzzle Arm?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Arm's attitude toward his son?

2. What happened on the band's tour that caused Doran to leave the band?

3. Whom does the barman tell Doran he reminds him of?

4. Why does Arm's son not live with him?

5. What is Rebecca's opinion of Arm after their conversation at Quillinan's?

6. Where does Arm head first after he leaves the uncles' farm, and what does he do once he gets there?

7. Who is Siobhán Maher, and how does she recognize the narrator of "Diamonds"?

8. How do Eli, Doran, and Maryanne know one another?

9. When Arm finally gets what he wants from Maire Mirkin, what is ironic about the situation?

10. What does Paudi do to Dympna, and what is Arm's reaction?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the significance of nicknames in Young Skins. Use evidence from at least four stories in support of your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the rhetorical purpose of the Young Skins motif of characters being identified by family characteristics--last names, physical characteristics, and so on. Use evidence from throughout the anthology to defend your ideas.

Essay Topic 3

In "Stand Your Skin," Bat turns to alcohol as an escape from his circumstances. Throughout Young Skins, characters use alcohol in ways that create problems for them; is this what Bat is doing, or given his limited opportunities to create a better life for himself, is his drinking a logical response? Does Barrett mean to simply condemn the drinking culture of small-town Ireland, or do the stories reveal a more nuanced reaction to it? Write an essay that places Bat's drinking into the context of the anthology as a whole and uses Bat's situation to illuminate the anthology's perspective on the drinking culture of rural Ireland.

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