The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Test – 40 points
Multiple Choice
1. The prologue foreshadows which of the following events?
a. the death of Dr. Papineau
c. the death of Trudy
b. the death of Gar Sawtelle
d. the death of Almondine
2. Which of Edgar’s ancestors began the line known as “Sawtelle dogs”?
a. Edgar’s father
c. Edgar’s great-grandfather
b. Edgar’s uncle
d. Edgar’s grandfather
3. Why does Gar shoot Forte?
a. Forte was badly injured in a fight.
b. Forte had badly maimed a deer.
c. Forte was mauling Claude.
d. Gar had shot another man’s dog and that man wanted Forte dead as a “trade.”
4. What resource does Edgar use to name puppies?
a. the internet
b. the Sawtelle family tree
c. a dictionary
d. the newspaper
5. Claude implies to Edgar that he had been in _____ before coming to live with the Sawtelles.
a. the navy
b. prison
c. Korea
d. California
6. What explanation does Dr. Frost give to Trudy as the cause of Gar’s death?
a. heart attack
b. aneurysm
c. stroke
d. poison
7. What problem almost prevented the burial of Gar at the farm?
a. frozen ground b. a snowstorm
c. the delayed autopsy d. the criminal investigation
8. What causes Trudy to relent and call Claude to help with the kennel?
a. her pneumonia
b. Edgar’s dreams
c. Dr. Papineau’s insistence
d. a dog fight
9. What item does the rain-figure guide Edgar to find?
a. a syringe
b. a dog
c. breeding records
d. a bottle
10. How does Edgar believe he will know for certain that Claude murdered Gar?
a. He will get a copy of the autopsy report
b. Ida Paine will confirm his suspicion
c. He will train his litter to reenact the murder
d. He will search through Claude’s things and find proof
11. Which of the following dogs does NOT accompany Edgar when he runs away?
a. Finch
b. Essay
c. Tinder
d. Baboo
12. Which of the following dogs is the only one to return home with Edgar?
a. Finch
b. Essay
c. Tinder
d. Baboo
13. While on the run, what happens that causes Edgar to seek help?
a. He is seen by a little girl.
c. He breaks his ankle.
b. Tinder steps on a shard of glass.
d. Finch is attacked by a coyote.
14. Where is Edgar the second time he sees a ghost?
a. In the mow b. In the woods
c. In the kennel
d. In Henry’s garage
15. What signal would Trudy give Edgar if it were safe to come home?
a. She would stand beside the silo.
c. She would leave a note in Iris’s kennel.
b. She would leave a note by Gar’s grave.
d. She would send Almondine after him.
16. In where does Edgar discover Claude had been hiding the bottle of poison?
a. In the kennel
b. In the house
c. In the mow
d. In Dr. Papineau’s office
17. How does Edgar die?
a. Glen poisons him
b. Claude poisons him c. Smoke inhalation
d. He falls from the mow
18. With whom does Edgar have a conversation just before he dies?
a. Claude
b. Trudy
c. Almondine
d. Glen
19. How does Claude die?
a. Edgar poisons him
c. He can’t find his way out of the barn
b. Glen shoots him
d. Trudy poisons him
20. What happens to the dogs at the end of the novel?
a. They are given to families in the town.
b. They return to Henry Lamb’s house.
c. They are still in their “stay” position in the yard.
d. They run off with Forte as a pack.
Character Matching – Identify the character with each of the following descriptions. Characters may be
used more than once or not at all.
a. Edgar Sawtelle
b. Trudy Sawtelle
c. Gar Sawtelle
d. Dr. Papineau
e. Claude Sawtelle
f. Ida Paine
g. Almondine
h. John Sawtelle
i. Schultz
j. Henry Lamb
k. Glen Papineau
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
Makes the following pronouncement: “He can use his hands.”
Enlisted in the navy
Arrives first at the farm after Gar’s death
Tells Edgar that he needs to “look for that bottle”
Dr. Papineau’s killer
Teaches Edgar how to drive
Is blinded by quicklime
Suggests that Claude help with the kennel after Gar’s death
Built the house in which Edgar lives
The one who has a natural talent for training the dogs
Is left by his fiancé because he is ordinary
Has the nickname, “Ox”
Quote Matching – Identify the character (type is in bold) described in each of the following quotes.
Characters may be used more than once or not at all. Use the same list of characters as in the previous
section.
33. “All that winter and all through the spring, [she] had know something was going to happen, but no matter
where she looked she couldn’t find it. Sometimes, when she entered a room, there was the feeling that the thing
that was going to happen had just been there […].”
34. “[…] it was clear at once that he had been around dogs a long time. Instead of petting Almondine or
scratching her ruff, he held out his hand, knuckle first, for her to sniff.”
35. “Fragmentary emotions possessed and released him, drawn like garments from a wardrobe and discarded,
one after another. Below that chaos of image and memory, something so powerfully suppressed he would
barely remember it: the idea that everything once true in the world was now past, and a thousand new
possibilities had been loosed. And, following that, a clap of overwhelming shame.”
36. “In her life, she’d been nourished and sustained by certain things, him being one of them, Trudy another,
and Edgar, the third and most important, but it was really the three of them together, intersecting in her, for each
of them powered her heart a different way.”
37. “He saw the world as filled with road blocks and difficulties, or so it seemed. He conveyed, somehow, the
impression that no bad news would ever surprise him, that every situation was a double-bind waiting to be
discovered.”
38. “He’d sit on the porch drawing the tip of his pocketknife across a bar of soap until a facsimile of something
or another appeared in his hands and was carved down into something smaller and the something smaller yet
until it finally disappeared entirely.”
39. “What scared him was sitting at home, alone, knowing he wouldn’t have the energy or the concentration to
do anything but look out the window and think. He didn’t want to see the thing bloom in front of him again.”
40. “It should have been simple. He took another step into the blackness. Time and again his hands pressed
against wire where there should have been open air. The aisle seemed to veer left, but when he moved left, it
veered right, as though the sound in his ears was not the breaking strain of burning wood, but the agony of those
great beams twisting.”