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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. Where is Anne’s husband’s barber shop?

2. Where does Anne’s husband go to see Egyptian sculptures?

3. Why does Nadine not ask her co-worker Josette to tell Ms. Hinds’ parents that she cannot be found?

4. How does the narrator says that Anne feels about having stopped having epileptic seizures?

5. When had Ka declared herself an atheist?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Ka and her family react to the possibility that a wanted Haitian criminal might be in the church?

2. What is Eric’s relationship with his roommates like?

3. Why are the 60 seconds at midnight during the Christmas mass Anne’s favorite minute of the year?

4. What is Anne’s family’s Christmas routine like?

5. What is the significance of Ka’s name?

6. What do Eric and his wife do when they go out on the weekend?

7. What is Ka’s father’s objection to the sculpture?

8. What is the crisis Ka Bienaimé is facing at the beginning of The Dew Breaker, and how does the crisis resolve?

9. How does the narrator characterize Anne’s religiosity?

10. What is Nadine’s relationship with her co-workers like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Dew Breaker does not end in confrontation or justice—Does the book propose terms by which justice might be accomplished? Are there characters in the book who accomplish justice in their way? What would it take for these characters to get justice? What would it take for you, as the reader, to feel the book led to some kind of closure?

Essay Topic 2

In Danticat’s novel, speaking and writing - and being silenced - is a thematic element through all of the stories. What power does Danticat attribute to the act of speaking? What are the limits of that power? What causes people to not be able to speak? What are the strengths and the weaknesses she attributes to being silent or silenced?

Essay Topic 3

Write an evaluative review of The Dew Breaker. What is this book’s place in our culture? Who will find this book most useful? What are its uses? What are its limitations?

(see the answer keys)

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