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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 is strange about Christopher Unwin's condition?

2. Whom does Anna want to see before they die from the plague?

3. What sad marker does the town come upon in June?

4. What is the name of Anna and Mompellion's child?

5. What does Anna take from the Hadfields to help her sleep?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Anna and Elinor do at the Gowdie cottage?

2. Where is Aphra kept overnight? What effect does this have on her? On the villagers?

3. How does the rector react to Elinor and Anna's actions? What is odd about his reaction when he first sees them?

4. What is revealed about Elinor's past? What is Anna's reaction?

5. Why is the rector summoned to Christopher Unwin's house? Why does Anna see Christopher again later, bloody and naked?

6. What color do the rector and Elinor wear to the Thanksgiving ceremony? What might this symbolize?

7. What does Anna take to help her sleep? How does it work? How is it dangerous?

8. Why does Aphra blame Anna for her husband's death? What does Anna notice about Aphra when they bury him?

9. Why is Anna repulsed by the rector? How do you think this contributes to the choice of her final destination in the novel?

10. Whom does Anna ask for help with digging the graves? Why won't he help?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Think about the difference between the Gowdie garden and Elinor's garden. Are Mem's and Anys's fates much different from Elinor's? How might these gardens affect their deaths? Think specifically about the reasons for these characters' deaths and each garden's instrumentality in the survival of the village.

Essay Topic 2

Consider the roles that Anna and Elinor fill for the rector. Then consider these two characters and their similarities and differences. How is Anna's role with the rector different from Elinor's? Does Anna betray Elinor after Elinor is dead? Why? Why does Anna decide to forge her own path instead of going to Elinor's father's house for safety?

Essay Topic 3

Think about the rector's internal struggle. After Elinor's death, he no longer believes in God, and denounces all his actions leading up to his relationship with Anna. Do you think he regrets his treatment of Elinor? If so, does Anna have good reason to be repulsed by him? If he vows that he is a changed man, that he has shed all of his papal learning, should Anna still judge him for his previous acts? Why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 900 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample