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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 did Emily Dickinson love best in her writing?
2. Who wrote, 'He goes because he must, as Galahad went towards the Grail; knowing that for those who can live it, this alone is life'?
3. How did Dillard come to understand the proper way to split wood?
4. How does Dillard say that she defines the life of the writer in Chapter 3?
5. What does Dillard say that she remembers seeing on the island at Haro Strait that made her weep on the shore in fear?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does a work in progress turn on its author, according to Dillard?
2. Why does Dillard say that she needed more materials than a pencil and paper in order to write something like a second draft for a thirty-page chapter?
3. Why does Dillard compare a writer writing a first draft to a Zulu warrior and an Aztec maiden?
4. What did Dillard learn from the local ferryman?
5. What was unfortunate about Dillard learning how to split wood correctly?
6. In Chapter 5, how does Dillard compare a writer to a tennis player?
7. What is ludicrous about the tea kettle in the faculty lounge of the university that Dillard wrote in?
8. What did writers such as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Ralph Ellison, and Eudora Welty have in common when learning to write, according to Dillard?
9. What does Dillard mean in Chapter 5 when she writes, '...instead we watch television and miss the show'?
10. Why does Dillard advise writers not to hoard a good idea for a later place in a book being written or for another book?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Describe Dillard's reasoning behind why it makes more sense to write one long book rather than many stories or essays. Use the comparison of book chapters to short stories in your explanation.
Essay Topic 2
Why did the stunt flights of Dave Rahm become so important to Dillard? What impact did he have on her life? What connections did she make upon seeing his show and flying with him?
Essay Topic 3
What was it about the fanaticism of Dillard's twenties that shocked her when she was writing this book? Why did she fear that it would? Describe ways noted throughout the book that exhibit Dillard's fanaticism. Is fanaticism an appropriate label for Dillard? Why or why not?
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This section contains 1,047 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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