QUESTION 1

1. Match each narrator from the first 3 sections of The Sweet Hereafter with the type of first person narrator they represent.
   
   

   –           A.           B.           C. Dolores DriscollRead Answer Items for Question 1          –           A.           B.           C. Billy AnselRead Answer Items for Question 1          –           A.           B.           C. Mitchell StephensRead Answer Items for Question 1

   Answer A. First person minor B. First person major C. First person observer

6 points

QUESTION 2

1. The plot structure used in The Sweet Hereafter is:
   
   

   Linear plot structure

   Parallel plot structure

   Spiral plot structure

   Pyramid plot structure

3 points

QUESTION 3

1. The tone of the section entitled “Mitchell Stephens, Esquire” is best described as:
   
   

   Depressed and defeated

   Optimistic and impassioned

   Detached and logical

   Frustrated and determined

3 points

QUESTION 4

1. What is the setting of the novel?
   
   

   A small town in America

   A big city subburb

   The town of Syracuse, New York

   A forest in the American midwest

3 points

QUESTION 5

1. Match the message or lesson of each character with the person who said it.
   
   

   –           A.           B.           C. “Obviously, you can’t control everything, but you are obliged to take care of the few things you can. I’m an optimist basically who acts like a pessimist. On principle. Just in case.”Read Answer Items for Question 5          –           A.           B.           C. “I could no longer believe even in life. . . . For me now the only reality was death.”Read Answer Items for Question 5          –           A.           B.           C. “It’s a very special kind of anger, let’s say. So I’m no victim. Victims get depressed and live in the then and there. I live in the here and now.”Read Answer Items for Question 5

   Answer A. Mitchell Stephens B. Dolores Driscoll C. Billy Ansel

6 points

QUESTION 6

1. Billy and Mitchell both tell almost the exact same story about meeting in the parking lot by the wrecked bus at night.
   TrueFalse

2 points

QUESTION 7

1. Billy Ansel and Mitchell Stephens both tell stories about almost losing their children when the children were small.
   TrueFalse

2 points

QUESTION 8

1.           In The Sweet Hereafter, Ansel says, “It’s a way of living with tragedy, I guess, to claim after it happens that you saw it coming, as if somehow you had already made the necessary adjustments beforehand.” In one or two paragraphs, discuss the other ways the characters of the novel try to explain the tragedy. What is the author saying about tragedy through Billy?

QUESTION 9

1.         In one or two paragraphs, discuss what the novel is saying about blame. Who does each of the three narrators blame for the tragedy? How are they helped or hurt by assigning blame?

QUESTION 10

1. In one or two paragraphs, compare and contrast Billy Ansel and Mitchell Stephens. Why did the author set these two characters’ sections side by side?

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