The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. The structure of “A Drug Called Tradition” best emphasizes which of the following?

A) The impact of substance abuse on relationships

B) The role of storytelling on the reservation

C) The connection between the past and the present

D) The tenuous relationships between friends

2. What description best fits Victor’s memory of the “ceremony” in “Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock”?

A) Distant and apathetic

B) Fraught and resentful

C) Tender and heartbreaking

D) Mournful and sad

3. Consider the following quote from “Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock”: “During the sixties, my father was the perfect hippie, since all the hippies were trying to be Indians.” Which of the following literary devices does this quote best show?

A) Foreshadowing

B) Irony

C) Figurative language

D) Mood

4. Which statement best describes the metaphor of the broken traffic light in “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore?”

A) The constant search for a hero figure

B) The poor infrastructure on the reservation

C) The significance of basketball

D) The cycle of hope and disappointment

5. What literary device is used in “Amusements” when Sadie is described as smiling “for the first time in four or five hundred years?”

A) Metaphor

B) Juxtaposition

C) Hyperbole

D) Understatement

6. Which of the following best describes how Victor’s relationship with Thomas evolves throughout “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”?

A) Resentment to acceptance

B) Anger to forgiveness

C) Gratitude to understanding

D) Apathy to compassion

7. What best describes the tone of the final scene of “The Fun House” as Aunt Nezzy puts on the beaded dress?

A) Mournful

B) Determined

C) Hopeful

D) Celebratory

8. In “All I Wanted to Do Was Dance,” what does the repetition of the word “drums” emphasize?

A) The importance of music within traditional ceremony

B) The way the present is interrupted by the past

C) The struggle to craft an identity in the modern world

D) The intersection of cultural tradition and familial tradition

9. The mother’s quilting in “A Good Story” exemplifies which of the following?

A) Imagery

B) Metaphor

C) Motif

D) Juxtaposition

10. What mood is conveyed by the rhetorical questions in “The First Annual All-Indian Horseshoe Pitch and Barbeque”?

A) Peaceful

B) Fraught

C) Conflicted

D) Satisfied

11. What does the quote “Imagine a story that puts wood in the fireplace” refer to?

A) Storytelling as a lifesaving force

B) The importance of basic needs

C) The gap between the past and present

D) Imagination as a trivial part of life

12. The structure of “Indian Education” best supports which of the following?

A) The struggles teenagers face

B) The cycle of institutional racism

C) The impact of substance abuse

D) The power of mentorship

13. What best describes Victor’s tone when he says, “I was the new kind of warrior” in “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”?

A) Confident

B) Uncertain

C) Hostile

D) Disillusioned

14. In “Somebody Kept Saying Powwow,” Norma asks Victor what it’s like off the reservation at college, and Victor says, “It’s like a bad dream you never wake up from.” This is an example of which literary device?

A) Personification

B) Simile

C) Hyperbole

D) Alliteration

15. What quote from “Witnesses, Secret and Not” best supports the theme of Cultural Belonging and Isolation?

A) “Sometimes it does feel like we are all defined by the food we eat, though. My father and I would be potted meat product, corned beef hash, fry bread, and hot chili.”

B) “My father’s hands never left the wheel and he stared straight ahead, as if the world outside the window wasn’t completely revolving.”

C) “I had to figure out what it meant to be a boy, a man, too. Most of all, I had to find out what it meant to be an Indian, and there ain’t no self-help manuals for that last one.”

D) “There wasn’t much to say during the drive back to the reservation. I mean, Jerry Vincent was gone. What more could I ask my father about him?”

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating textual details to support your response.

1. In “Every Little Hurricane,” Victor’s father opens and closes his empty wallet, repeating “this ceremony again and again, as if the repetition itself could guarantee change.” What does the word “ceremony” show about this scene?

2. Why does Julius Windmaker’s failure feel so devastating in “The Only Traffic Light on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore?”

3. Describe humor’s complicated role in James and Norma’s marriage in “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor?”