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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. How does Lewis begin his reflections?

2. In his grief, where did the author want to revisit?

3. How does the author close the second chapter?

4. To what does the author compare falling in love with H.'s memory?

5. What religious form would an introduction of a bad God take, according to the author?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter Two, how does Lewis introduce the idea of faith? When does Lewis determine that one's beliefs are ultimately tested?

2. Lewis is surprised about the way that grief intrudes upon his daily responsibilities. What are some symptoms Lewis experiences about the laziness of grief?

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

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

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

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

7. Why is Lewis "appalled" when he read what he has written in the first chapter?

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

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

10. 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.?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

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 must deal with his children as they all struggle through their loss. As Lewis tries to open up to his sons, he is confronted with their great disturbance.

1) How does Lewis attempt to communicate with his children? What topics of conversation does he introduce?

2) How do the children respond to Lewis's advances to build a bridge that connects them? Specify how Lewis interprets the children's responses. Give at least three examples of Lewis's impressions.

3) With what experience does Lewis relate his sons' emotions about their mother's death?

(see the answer keys)

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