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. Whom does Lewis' sons remind him of?

2. What is A Grief Observed a series of?

3. To what ultimate fate does the author resign himself?

4. Who causes the author the most confusion?

5. What sense does the first chapter end with?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Lewis find so horrifying about the man he encountered who was tending to his mother's grave? What does Lewis's reaction to the man mean for Lewis's feelings about H.?

2. H.'s absence is most evident to Lewis in his body. How does Lewis experience his own body in his grief?

3. What does Lewis mean by the term "live" as it relates to H.'s memory?

4. Before H. died, In what ways is Lewis aware of the distinction between himself and H.?

5. How did Lewis feel years ago about a friend's life after death? Contrast that experience with the way that Lewis experiences H. after her death?

6. Lewis begins to ask a question that becomes central to his reflections. What "disquieting symptom" introduces itself to Lewis in Chapter One?

7. Does Lewis have trouble believing that God exists? Explain.

8. What is one aspect of the supposed consolation that H. continues that troubles Lewis?

9. Why can Lewis not talk to his children about their mother?

10. How does Lewis try to convince himself that he does not mind H.'s death? Provide examples of the things that Lewis tells himself.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter Two, Lewis describes an encounter with a man whom Lewis had not seen for a long time. Discuss the feelings and realizations Lewis experienced through his encounter with this man. How does Lewis describe his realization to the reader, and why might he choose that method to describe his realization?

Essay Topic 2

Before H. died, what were her nearly last words to Lewis? How do those words compare with words of consolation that Lewis hears after H.'s death? Who does Lewis believe and why? If H.'s words were true, what does it mean for her continuing in God's hands? Describe Lewis's feelings about a God in whose hands Lewis sadly finds his departed wife.

Essay Topic 3

Lewis describes an encounter with a man with a hoe and a watering can who was preparing to tend to the man's mother's grave. Lewis is "horrified" by the encounter, which displays Lewis's consistent desire to penetrate to the reality of the death of H. and the reality of God.

1) Discuss what it is about the man with the hoe that caused Lewis to be so troubled. Was it something the man said or did?

2) What does Lewis reflect is better; tending to a grave and letting that be one's sense of reality about the deceased, or to pass by symbols and seek to do without the person? Explain what Lewis is trying to work out.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 792 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample