View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What image from the photograph album does Lessing describe?

2. In Chapter 2, what is one thing that Lessing says the writer must have in order to begin to write about his/her life?

3. How did the author feel about her childhood?

4. What does Lessing say about memory?

5. What did Lessing's father think of his Persian business partners?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Lessing become an atheist?

2. In Chapter 8, how did the girls at the school avoid exams?

3. Describe Lessing's outlook on the future of the world and human society.

4. What essential skill did Lessing learn in Chapter 5?

5. What did Lessing suspect was the root of her mother's illness?

6. In Chapter 3, what type of child abuse does Lessing describe?

7. Describe the circumstances that led to Alfred's depression.

8. While their mother was bedridden, what did Lessing and her brother do?

9. How did Lessing avoid dealing with her conflicts with her mother?

10. According to Lessing's memory, how did she learn to interact with people around her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

World Wars I and II played a significant role in Lessing's autobiography. Analyze the way in which she grappled with the Wars as historical events; and the repercussions that Europe and the rest of the world faced as a result of those conflicts. How did Lessing portray those effects in the autobiography? How did the Wars differ from other conflicts before them? What was Lessing's opinion regarding those Wars in particular; and the practice of war in general? What reasons did she give for her views on war?

Essay Topic 2

Examine Lessing's position on social class and class structures. How did Lessing perceive class? What was her social class at birth? And, how did her family's social status affect her understanding of the term, class? What moments from the autobiography appear to have contributed to her notions of what class and class structure were? Considering events from her childhood and young adult years, what inspired Lessing to join the Communist Party of Southern Rhodesia?

Essay Topic 3

Explore and discuss the way in which Lessing deals with mental illness in her autobiography. How did she approach the issue of mental illness? How did she treat the people whom she mentioned within her autobiography who suffered from mental illness? Was she sympathetic? Compassionate? Understanding? What effect did mental illness have on her life? How might that effect, if any, explain or illuminate her position on mental illness?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 874 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample