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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. What is the name of the unnamed narrator's boyfriend in the story "Baby Arm"?

2. What movie does the unnamed narrator in the story "Baby Arm" tell her boyfriend she liked?

3. What university does Sarah attend?

4. Who abducted Savvie and Carolina when they were children?

5. Who does Caridad think she might be able to be friends with who has just moved to the Naples community?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Kate's elderly landlady tell her in the story "North Country" when she meets her for the first time?

2. Why does Carolina tell Savvie she decided to marry Darryl?

3. What shocking realization does the narrator come to at the end of "The Mark of Cain"?

4. Why do Savvie and Carolina not have to worry about money or finances?

5. In "Difficult Women," what does Gay say a loose woman sees in the mirror and why?

6. What traumatic event did Kate experience with her long-term partner before meeting Magnus?

7. Why does Bianca agree to go out with Dean and initially start a relationship with him?

8. Why does Magnus get angry with Kate and ignore her calls for weeks?

9. Why does Sarah let everyone assume she is white in the story "La Negra Blanca"?

10. Why does Sarah, who goes by Sierra at work, perform at a strip club?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing why the narrator has such difficulty fully trusting her lover in the story "Strange Gods." Why do you think the narrator finally comes around to accepting her partner's marriage proposal, on her partner's fifth attempt, at the end of the story?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout this book of short stories, Gay explores the lives of many different kinds of women of different races, ages, socioeconomic classes, and sexual orientations. Many of her female characters have suffered terrible traumas and abuses. Why do you think Gay titled her book Difficult Women, and how do you think she would define so-called "difficult woman" after reading all of the stories in this collection?

Essay Topic 3

Why does the narrator in "The Mark of Cain" refrain from confronting either Caleb, her husband, or Jacob, her husband's twin brother, about the fact that they frequently trade places and pretend to be each other for lengthy periods of time? Write an essay explaining your answer, citing specific references to the text.

(see the answer keys)

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