76 pages • 2 hours read
Tim WintonThe Turning
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
“Big World,” “Abbreviation,” and “Aquifer”
Reading Check
1. What happens to Biggie and the narrator’s van in “Big World”?
2. What is unique about Melanie that Vic Lang obsesses over in “Abbreviation”?
3. How is Vic Lang injured in “Abbreviation”?
4. What happens to Alan Mannering in “Aquifer”?
Multiple Choice
1. Why is the narrator of “Big World” troubled by the way Biggie treats Meg?
A) It makes him realize that Biggie treats him the same way.
B) It reflects his own behavior toward Biggie.
C) It is cruel in a way he didn’t expect of his friend.
D) It is openly sexual and the narrator feels trapped by that.
2. How is Vic’s uncle Eddie different from Vic’s father Bob?
A) He is more of a troublemaker.
B) He is a rule follower.
C) He is lazy.
D) He is a cheapskate.
3. Why is Melanie sad about the end of her vacation?
A) because her family is normally cruel to her when they’re not on vacation
B) because she will be forced to work on the farm when she returns home
C) because she has no friends at home
D) because she has just moved to a new, unfamiliar town
4. What is significant about the Joneses being evicted from their home in “Aquifer”?
A) They were always cruel to the narrator growing up.
B) They were the narrator’s final connection to his old neighborhood.
C) They were the only people who knew of Alan Mannering’s fate.
D) They were an Aborigine family in a gentrifying neighborhood.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does the narrator of “Big World” feel about his relationship with Biggie?
2. Why is the image of the burning kite a fitting symbol for the narrator of “Big World”?
3. Why does Vic want to give the fish hook that embedded in his leg to Melanie?
4. What is significant about the residents using groundwater as the suburban neighborhood develops in “Aquifer”?
“Damaged Goods” and “Small Mercies”
Reading Check
1. How did Strawberry Alison from “Damaged Goods” get her nickname?
2. What does Vic realize Alison’s poem is really about after she goes to college?
3. What leads Peter Dyson to move back to Angelus in “Small Mercies”?
4. What secret do Fay and Peter keep from Fay’s parents in “Small Mercies”?
Multiple Choice
1. How does Alison react when Vic professes his love to her?
A) She returns his feelings.
B) She laughs at him.
C) She runs away crying.
D) She punches him.
2. What does Gail, Vic’s wife, think about Alison’s poem when she reads it?
A) She finds it unremarkable.
B) She finds it deeply moving.
C) She finds it incomprehensible.
D) She finds it disturbing.
3. What do the Keeners hope Peter will do for them?
A) stay clear of Fay
B) be a good influence on Fay
C) help them keep custody of Fay’s son
D) let his son become friends with their grandson
4. Why doesn’t Peter want to be around Fay?
A) He is unwilling to empathize with her.
B) He is a recovering drug addict too.
C) He is afraid of her.
D) He doesn’t like the way their relationship ended.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Vic Lang’s love seem suspicious to his wife Gail in “Damaged Goods”?
2. What does Vic misinterpreting Alison’s poem mean for his assumptions about her?
3. Why does Fay want to reconnect with Peter?
4. Why is Fay’s threat at the end of “Small Mercies” effective?
“On Her Knees” and “Cockleshell”
Reading Check
1. In “On Her Knees,” what does Vic’s mother do for a living after her husband leaves?
2. What is the dilemma between Vic and his mother in “On Her Knees?”
3. What does Brakie watch Agnes do in “Cockleshell”?
4. What happens to Agnes’s father in “Cockleshell?”
Multiple Choice
1. Why doesn’t Vic’s mother want to fight back when she’s accused of theft?
A) because she is guilty of the theft
B) because she knows it’s pointless and will lead to further trouble
C) because she has a reputation from a previous incident
D) because she wanted an excuse to leave that client
2. Why does Vic think his mother’s client may be going easy on her?
A) because the client is an old family friend
B) because the client previously had an affair with Bob Lang, Vic’s father
C) because the client is the mother of one of Vic’s friends
D) because the client is a professor at Vic’s school
3. Why does Brakey think he and Agnes stopped speaking even though they are neighbors?
A) because they got in a fistfight
B) because he witnessed her abusive household
C) because he mocked her at school for being poor
D) because she knew he was attracted to her
4. How does Agnes feel about her father’s sobriety?
A) She thinks it is a good development.
B) She thinks that it’s only temporary.
C) She thinks it has made their house sadder than it was.
D) She thinks that it is a lie.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Vic feel ashamed of his mother’s work in “On Her Knees”?
2. Why does Vic relent and put the earrings back after throwing them into the litterbox in “On Her Knees”?
3. Why does Brakey’s mother look down on the Larwood family in “Cockleshell”?
4. Why is Brakey so afraid to run into Agnes again as an adult?
“The Turning,” “Sand,” and “Family”
Reading Check
1. How do Max and Frank know each other in these three stories?
2. Why does Raelene begin skipping her darts game in “The Turning”?
3. What does Max do to Frank in “Sand”?
4. What type of traumatic accident happens to Max in “Family”?
Multiple Choice
1. Why does Raelene find Dan and Sherry’s religious faith suspicious?
A) They do not have happy lives.
B) They are beautiful people.
C) They seem to be in denial.
D) They have given all their belongings to the church.
2. What causes Max to become more abusive in “The Turning”?
A) the loss of his job
B) his brother becoming more famous than him
C) the death of his father
D) his brother quitting his professional football team
3. Why is Max hesitant to let Frank back into his life?
A) because Max is an abusive alcoholic
B) because Max is jealous of Frank
C) because Raelene dislikes Frank
D) because Frank never let Max into his life
4. Why does Frank stop playing football?
A) because he suffers from a chronic injury
B) because Max always mocked him for caring about sports
C) because he no longer sees the point in trying
D) because he doesn’t think he has the talent
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Raelene feel she is free of Max at the end of “The Turning”?
2. What underlying reason does Max have for deciding to be cruel to Frank in “Sand”?
3. How is the fact that Frank apologizes for what Max does to him in “Sand” true to his character as an adult in “Family”?
4. Why does Frank’s decision to save his brother represent a shift in his character?
“Long, Clear View,” “Reunion,” “Commission,” and “Fog”
Reading Check
1. What does Vic frequently do when he is alone in the house in “Long, Clear View”?
2. Why do Vic, Gail, and Carol rush out of the house in “Reunion”?
3. Where has Vic’s father Bob fled to in “Commission”?
4. Why do Bob and Marie go into the wilderness in “Fog”?
Multiple Choice
1. What helps make Vic popular at school for a short time in “Long, Clear View”?
A) His father is a police officer.
B) He has seen what happens at the wharf.
C) He has a special relationship with Strawberry Alison.
D) His father owns a gun.
2. Why is Gail hesitant to go to the family reunion in “Reunion”?
A) She doesn’t like Uncle Ernie.
B) She thinks Vic will not be able to handle seeing family.
C) She worries that Vic will drink too much.
D) She feels that Carol doesn’t like her.
3. How is Bob able to get sober, which he reveals in “Commission”?
A) He internalizes the guilt and shame of leaving his family.
B) He goes to a rehab facility in the bush.
C) He sees how pathetic the other people at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting are.
D) He moves in with a woman who helps him get clean.
4. What keeps Bob from drinking when he’s stuck in the wilderness with Marie?
A) He realizes she’s underage.
B) He realizes she’s a gossip.
C) He realizes she’s a journalist.
D) He realizes she thinks he’s a heroic figure.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Vic feel such pressure to defend his family in “Long, Clear View”?
2. What makes Vic agitated about Gail and Carol’s conversation in “Reunion”?
3. What reason does Bob give for leaving his family behind in “Commission”?
4. Why doesn’t Bob tell Marie about the corruption at the police department during the events of “Fog”?
“Boner McPharlin’s Moll,” “Immunity,” and “Defender”
Reading Check
1. What does Boner McPharlin reveal to Jackie at the end of “Boner McPharlin’s Moll”?
2. What happened to Vic Lang’s sister in “Immunity”?
3. What does Gail reveal to Vic in “Defender”?
4. What memory bothers Vic in “Defender”?
Multiple Choice
1. What causes Jackie to become a serious student in “Boner McPharlin’s Moll”?
A) She flunks her courses.
B) She gets in a fight with Boner.
C) She learns what other girls with her reputation are up to.
D) She loses a chance at a scholarship.
2. Who does Jackie meet who offers to stand up for Boner after his attack?
A) Bob Lang
B) Vic Lang
C) Max
D) Frank
3. What do Vic and the unnamed narrator of “Immunity” talk about?
A) their future careers
B) what kind of parents they want to be
C) fear of death
D) their college plans
4. What makes Vic feel like an outsider at Gail’s friends’ house in “Defender”?
A) They all grew up together.
B) They all pity him for losing his parents.
C) They know about Gail’s indiscretion before he does.
D) They all work in the same field.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Jackie think she’s been a bad friend to Boner McPharlin at the end of his life?
2. How is the narrator of “Immunity” an inversion of Vic Lang’s other relationships with women?
3. Why does Vic worry about his encounter with the Aborigine man in “Defender”?
4. Why is Vic hesitant to shoot skeet at the end of “Defender”?
Quizzes – Answer Key
“Big World,” “Abbreviation,” and “Aquifer”
Reading Check
1. It burns. (“Big World”)
2. She is missing a finger. (“Abbreviation”)
3. He is caught by a fishing hook. (“Abbreviation”)
4. He drowns while the narrator watches. (“Aquifer”)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. He realizes that Biggie is a burden who is dragging him down. (“Big World”)
2. It represents the danger he is in regarding his future plans after high school; it’s a symbol of a person with potential crashing and burning. (“Big World”)
3. because he believes it will show her that he’s experienced pain like she has (“Abbreviation”)
4. It shows that they cannot escape the traumatic history of the place where they live. (“Aquifer”)
“Damaged Goods” and “Small Mercies”
Reading Check
1. She has a large birthmark. (“Damaged Goods”)
2. her sexual identity as a lesbian (“Damaged Goods”)
3. the death of his wife by suicide (“Small Mercies”)
4. an abortion they had (“Small Mercies”)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. because she thinks it might be a form of pity like his infatuation with Strawberry Alison or Melanie (“Damaged Goods”)
2. He thinks she defines herself by her deformity, much like he does. (“Damaged Goods”)
3. She hopes to make progress with her parents through him. (“Small Mercies”)
4. because Peter clings to the idea that he is a good person in the eyes of Fay’s parents (“Small Mercies”)
“On Her Knees” and “Cockleshell”
Reading Check
1. She works as a house cleaner/maid. (“On Her Knees”)
2. He thinks she should stand up for herself when she’s accused of stealing. (“On Her Knees”)
3. fish with a gidgie or spear (“Cockleshell”)
4. He dies in a house fire. (“Cockleshell”)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. because he knows she is doing it for him, and that he will move into the middle class while she stays in the working class (“On Her Knees”)
2. He sees that his mother’s good name is worth more than his righteous anger at the situation. (“On Her Knees”)
3. because they are immigrants, because they have less money, and because the father is an alcoholic (“Cockleshell”)
4. He worries he will not be able to stop from asking about the truth of the night of the fire. (“Cockleshell”)
“The Turning,” “Sand,” and “Family”
Reading Check
1. They are brothers. (“The Turning”)
2. She wants to hang out with Dan and Sherry. (“The Turning”)
3. He buries him in the dunes. (“Sand”)
4. He is attacked by a shark. (“Family”)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. because she has seen that Max doesn’t have the power over her that she thought he did (“The Turning”)
2. He is jealous of Frank’s natural athletic ability. (“Sand”)
3. He takes on the burden of his brother’s flaws and makes them his own concern. (“Family”)
4. He is willing to try again after feeling that trying has become pointless. (“Family”)
“Long, Clear View,” “Reunion,” “Commission,” and “Fog”
Reading Check
1. get his father’s rifle (“Long, Clear View”)
2. They realize they’re at the wrong house. (“Reunion”)
3. the Western Australia bush country (“Commission”)
4. They are looking for a lost hiker. (“Fog”)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. He sees that something is going on with his father’s job and the dangers in town, but he doesn’t understand what the threat is. (“Long, Clear View”)
2. Gail starts talking about her bad childhood, and he feels that he should be able to protect her. (“Reunion”)
3. The corruption at the police force, and his cowardice in the face of it, made him feel like he didn’t deserve his life. (“Commission”)
4. He realizes that she’s just a child. (“Fog”)
“Boner McPharlin’s Moll,” “Immunity,” and “Defender”
Reading Check
1. that he was beaten by four police officers (“Boner McPharlin’s Moll”)
2. She died of meningitis. (“Immunity”)
3. that she had an affair during her trip in “Damaged Goods” (“Defender”)
4. the time he tackled an Aborigine man as he tried to escape the police (“Defender”)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. She refused to believe that he was being tormented at the hands of the police. (“Boner McPharlin’s Moll”)
2. She is obsessed with his trauma and fragility, whereas that is how he treated Strawberry Alison and Melanie in other stories. (“Immunity”)
3. He fears he may be part of the corrupt system that discriminated against Aborigine people. (“Defender”)
4. He recalls his earlier experience as a child holding a rifle that he might have used on someone. (“Defender”)
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By Tim Winton
