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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 does Clara identify the voice she hears and associates with the strange man?

2. What does Clara do when she sees Pleyel to confront him?

3. What did the naked and burned person inside the temple have on their arm?

4. Why does the religious fanatic come to America?

5. When Clara collapses, whose house does she wake up in?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Clara realize is the reason that Pleyel is withdrawing from the group?

2. How does Carwin try to explain the voices to Clara and her friends?

3. What did the children do with their father's old temple over the years?

4. When Carwin steps out of the closet, what does he reveal to Clara before fleeing?

5. How does the reader learn that Carwin is the villain?

6. How does the mysterious death of the narrator's father set the tone of the novel?

7. What does Clara fear will appear as a sign of her guilt to Pleyel?

8. What does Pleyel accuse Clara of?

9. Why does Pleyel end up asking Clara for forgiveness for his words?

10. What does Pleyel learn from the voice that turns out to be true about his lover?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Brown uses more than one iteration on the motif of grief and loss. Identify at least two instances of grief and loss in the book.

Essay Topic 2

Brown uses more than one iteration on the theme of disappointment. Identify at least two characters who either embody or experience disappointment, and then cite an example to support your answers.

Essay Topic 3

Love is a recurring theme in Wieland; and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist. How does Clara's feelings about love change from the beginning of the novel to its end? In what ways has she expanded her awareness and beliefs? Is sexuality connected to love for Clara? How does her feelings for Pleyel develop and change, and how does her relationship with him contrast with that of other men that she has had romantic or an idealized relationship with?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 612 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample