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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. How does Benson protect herself against this ghost?

2. In the story of the old man and the old woman, in "The Husband Stitch," whose liver does the old woman eat?

3. How does the narrator of "Mothers" describe Bad?

4. How does the narrator of "The Husband Stitch" describe herself, in the "dramatis personae" section?

5. What does the narrator of "The Husband Stitch" give the reader instructions for?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Stabler’s life unlike the girls with bells with eyes?

2. What is the importance of the act of making lists, in "Inventory"?

3. What does "the husband stitch" refer to?

4. What is the DA’s relationship with Benson?

5. What does Stabler do to complicate relations with his wife in "Especial Heinous"?

6. What is the dominant investigation taking place in ‘"Especial Heinous"?

7. What is happening in the ending of "Mothers"?

8. How would you describe the atmosphere Machado creates in "Especial Heinous"?

9. What is Machado’s style like?

10. What kind of atmosphere does Machado create with her epigrams?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In "The Resident," the narrator says that her talent comes from the ability to ‘manipulate proportions.’ Assess this statement in terms of its applicability to Machado’s book as a whole. Where do you see this quality in the stories? Is it the main source of the strength in Machado’s work? What other talents compete with this quality, to be the most important part of her work?

Essay Topic 2

Write an evaluative review of Her Body and Other Parties. What is this book’s place in culture? What are its uses? What are its limitations?

Essay Topic 3

What are the dangers confronting women in Machado’s stories, and what are the skills they develop—or skills that Machado herself shows us, as narrator—that overcome the dangers or at least compensate for losses?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 997 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample