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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 disease took both of the author's parents?

2. In the early stage of the author's grief, what was one emotion he felt toward God?

3. What ancient civilization thought that embalming the dead lessened death's effect?

4. In the second chapter, what person does the author come to realize he had little confidence in?

5. Where does the author determine holds no promise of a happy afterlife?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What do consoling people tell Lewis about where H. is after her death? How does Lewis interpret these attempts to console him?

3. What was so striking and disturbing about Lewis's encounter with the man he had not seen for 10 years? What image comes to Lewis's mind about memories of H.?

4. What does Lewis realize is the problem with deciding to think less about himself and more about H.?

5. How does Lewis think people react when they encounter him?

6. What aspects of religion is Lewis glad to discuss? What aspect of religion is Lewis not willing to accept?

7. What does Lewis think that he can say about H.'s continuing? Why is it important for Lewis to work out the issue of where H. is?

8. Lewis decided to record his reflections to get all his feelings and thoughts out. What does Lewis reflect might be a downside to his journal?

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

10. In Chapter One, Lewis reflects upon marriage, religion and God. What is one thing that Lewis admits that marriage has done for him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

C.S. Lewis was a religious scholar. He brought deep knowledge to his reflections on grief. He also was familiar, prior to H.'s death and certainly after she died, with religious platitudes. Write a developed essay that covers what Lewis says he will discuss about religion and how he will respond. Also discuss what Lewis will not discuss about religion and what he will assume from that particular topic. Describe why Lewis distinguishes among these topics.

Essay Topic 2

Describe the different ways that Lewis considers God. Specify each of Lewis's characterizations of God and what each means to Lewis. With which, if any, of Lewis's characterizations about God does Lewis end the book?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter Three, Lewis begins focused reflections on God and God's nature. Watching H. suffer, knowing what she had lost, and what Lewis lost, Lewis comes to the question of God. As a man who believed in God, this is the foundational issue of the book. In what direction will Lewis move as he learns to cope with the loss of his wife? What does that mean for Lewis's faith in God? How does Lewis reason through his earlier rantings at God? In what specific ways does Lewis describe God as He may or may not be? Do you think that Lewis is stronger when he is immersed in his emotions or in his reasoning? Explain.

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