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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. When does the original Hall burn down?

2. What does Winnie Swona do when someone tries to steal her hens?

3. When does the Bishop Usher set the date of Creation?

4. What is Thorfinn given in the prison camp to help him write?

5. What is the oddest thing the hippie families try to grow on the deserted Norday Island?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why are all the doors gone from the island homes when Thorfinn returns to Norday after many years absence?

2. What is happening to both the laird's house and the minister's manse in chapter 5?

3. What does Thorfinn do when he returns to the island after the war?

4. According to chapter 5, how did the lairds of old manage to be so wealthy?

5. How is the story Mr. Simon is telling the class (early in chapter 5) relevant to the fantasy sequence in which Thorfinn marries a seal wife?

6. Why did the hippies finally leave Norday Island?

7. In chapter 6, what is Elphinstone's role in rounding up the young men for military service?

8. Why does the seal girl, Mara, not follow the seal-people into the sea?

9. What kind of food does Mara the seal wife like to eat?

10. Why was Mistress Ragnarson not afraid to catch consumption from her son Thorfinn (in chapter 6)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The style of writing a story within a story is somewhat unique. What does this literary device allow the author to reveal about his main character, Thorfinn? Why doesn't he simply write a book of imaginative stories? How is this double layer of reality different? How does it affect the reader?

Essay Topic 2

Contrast the story of the two horses, Seamus (chapter 2) and Selkie (chapter 5). Write an essay describing their part in the story and what they symbolize. George Mackay Brown uses both horses symbolically. What does each represent? What is their story and how do they reveal the deeper meaning of the protagonists journey?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the themes in "The Song of the Broch." What is the overall image that Thorfinn creates? How is that image carried through in the chapter as a whole? What is the overall feeling and tone of the song? How is writing song lyrics different from telling a story through narrative or prose?

(see the answer keys)

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