ANSWER KEY

1.) b

2.) a

3.) d

4.) b

5.) b

6.) c

7.) d

8.) d

9.) c

10.) a

11.) c

12.) a

13.) b

14.) c

15.) d

ESSAY TOPICS - BOOK REPORT IDEAS

1.) How accurately does Bradbury capture the sensations of childhood in the novel? Cite specific examples to support your answer.

2.) Is there any way we can categorize stories in Dandelion Wine as a kind of science fiction? Choose specific chapters and explore them in light of this genre.

3.) Bradbury seems to draw a line between good technology and bad. List examples of each and determine how these distinctions are made. Based on these distinctions, what would be good and bad technology today?

4.) Could a novel such as Dandelion Wine be written in 21st century America? How would it be the same, how would it be different?

5.) Explore the family dynamic of Douglas, his brother Tom, his parents, and his grandparents. What can we tell about the Spaulding family as a unit? What do they value, what do they enjoy? What do we not know about them, and why do you think this is so?

6.) How does the ravine emerge as a story of its own? That is, as the point where human and nature meet and struggle, what events take place there in the story, and how do they all fit together in light of this struggle?

7.) Is Bradbury too nostalgic about the past, is he against progress or merely cautious about it? Use specific examples from the novel to support your position.

8.) Consider Tom Spaulding as a character in his own right. If Douglas is about a new awareness of life and mortality, then what thematic purpose does Tom serve? What role does he play in the life of Green Town, what lessons is he able to learn and impart?

9.) In what ways are adults different from children in the novel: how do they think differently, what are different things they want? What does that tell us about these different stages of life, at least according to Bradbury?

10.) Examine Dandelion Wine as a work of metafiction: a work of fiction that explores itself as a work of fiction, that examines its own process of being created. How does it work specific to this novel? Why is it important thematically to consider the novel in this light?

11.) Imagine if Douglas and Tom played a smaller part in Dandelion Wine, without the commentary and insights in the bridge passages. How would such a novel read? What would be stronger than the original, what would be weaker?