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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 city did Gay travel to with the man in his forties right after they left San Francisco?

2. What did Gay's English teacher encourage her to do?

3. How many siblings does Gay have?

4. What specific community is Gay drawn to online?

5. Where did Gay enroll for her PhD program in creative writing?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Gay describe Haitian attitudes toward gluttony?

2. What is Gay referring to when she says her life was split in two, “the before and the after" (14)?

3. What was Gay's relationship to food like before her rape?

4. Why did the author gain weight so rapidly once she went to boarding school?

5. Why does Gay say that gaining so much weight made her feel safer?

6. How does Gay feel about the use of BMI (body mass index) measurements?

7. What was Gay's mother’s approach to teaching her children how to cook?

8. What relationship did Gay have with the boy who raped her?

9. What do you think Roxane Gay means by the phrase “The story of my body is not a story of triumph” (4)?

10. What advice about writing did Gay’s teacher, Mr. McGuinn, give to Gay?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Gay indicates that Hunger was the most difficult work she has ever written. Write an essay describing the author’s tone throughout the book, how it changes, and what effect it has on the reader.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay exploring the significance of the word “hunger” - including its multiple meanings - to the author Roxane Gay. Use specific examples from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Gay does not tell her family about her brutal rape at the age of 12 for many years, and even when she does reveal the truth, she can not discuss it directly with them. Write an essay detailing why Gay found it so difficult to tell her family about her trauma, citing specific examples from the text.

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