View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What color is the outfit Ellen is wearing to the funeral?

2. Who is Dora?

3. What hygiene task does Ellen let her new mama perform on her?

4. What does Ellen do when her mother goes to bed?

5. What activity has become an escape for Ellen?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Ellen have conflicting views about Starletta's family?

2. Up to Chapter 7, what are some of the ways Ellen covers up for her father?

3. How does Ellen's grandmother cause a scene at the funeral?

4. What event leads to Ellen's removal from her father's care?

5. How does the author create a reversal of the mother-daughter role in the novel?

6. How is Ellen's grandmother's removal of Ellen's mother's clothes symbolic to the story?

7. How is the pony's name, Dolphin, a symbol of freedom to Ellen?

8. How is Ellen wearing her mother's clothes symbolic to the story?

9. The author never indicates the time period of when the events in Ellen's life are taking place. How can one tell from the context about clues that Ellen's story happens in fairly modern times?

10. In Chapter 1, Ellen contemplates killing someone. How does Ellen plan to kill this person and respond to the death if she actually goes through with it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In class discussion, you learned about the literary elements of a climax. Using these discussions and the text, describe the climax in the story.

Essay Topic 2

Using the discussions from class and details from the text list some of the ways Ellen had to fend for herself.

Essay Topic 3

During Ellen's mother's funeral, it was raining. How is the rain a symbol of the hardships/storms coming up in Ellen's life?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 599 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample