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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. Which of the following characters tries to leave in the chaos of applying first aid to Paul?

2. As Ouisa considers the idea of being murdered in her sleep, what does she wonder aloud?

3. How does the Hunan Wok misspell its sign?

4. In this section, Paul mentions attending a film festival with his father in what country?

5. Where do the prospective buyers for Flan's Cezanne live?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the two sets of parents in this section try to track down Sidney Poitier?

2. How does Paul view himself in terms of race in America?

3. Why does Flan give Paul fifty dollars after Geoffrey leaves?

4. What galling realization do the parents make as they read SIdney Poitier's autobiography?

5. How does the Detective respond to the complaints of the Kittredges, Kitty, and Larkin?

6. How does Trent and Paul's relationship end?

7. How does Paul succeed in taking Rick and Elizabeth's money?

8. Why does the Detective now have a case against Paul at the end of this section?

9. What event breaks the relative silence after the Trent Conway revelation?

10. What story do Larkin and Kitty tell in this section?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The end of the play is ambiguous in wrapping up many of its plot lines. Write an essay about the final moments of the play, focusing on the fate of Paul. How do the Kittredges fail to find him in the Village, and how does he become lost in the criminal justice system? What does this say about his place in the world and the place of those like him?

Essay Topic 2

The idea of the imagination resonates strongly throughout he play, beginning of course with Paul's "thesis" in the first passages. Write an essay on Guare's understanding of imagination in three parts:

Part 1) Compare Paul's conception of the purpose of imagination in his thesis with what he perceives to be society's new definition of imagination. How are they different? Why does Paul consider the latter reductive?

Paul 2) How doe Ouisa, Flan and Geoffrey react to Paul's thesis on imagination? When Paul appears in Ouisa's imagination later in the play, how does he amend his notion of imagination?

Paul 3) How is what Paul actually does to the families of the play the opposite of his sense of imagination? Is he chipping away at his own personality living in a state of constant deception?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the play, several couples come into contact with Paul and are affected by the experience in profoundly different ways. Write an essay about these different relationships. How do they come into contact with Paul? What does he give them and what does he take away? How are they forced to reassess their ideas of self, love, family?

Part 1) Larkin and Kitty

Part 2) Elizabeth and Rick

Part 3) Ouisa and Flan

(see the answer keys)

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