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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 the author say can shatter the author's idea of God?

2. Why could the author's records not achieve his intended purpose?

3. As Chapter Three begins, what does the author record that he is afraid his grief will turn into?

4. To what length would the author have gone if it could have cured H.'s cancer?

5. What effect did the author's experience of H. have on him?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the consolation that previously so wearied Lewis, "She is in God's hands", strike Lewis by the last chapter?

2. What does Lewis mean when he writes that he can believe that God is a vet? Conversely, how is it difficult for Lewis to think of God as a vet?

3. What are Lewis's reflections about images in the fourth chapter?

4. What does Lewis reflect can withstand suffering better, the body or the mind? Briefly explain.

5. What question does Lewis ask to begin to reason his way through his pain? How does this question lead Lewis onto new ground?

6. In Chapter Three, what does Lewis come to see about his love for H. and his faith in God?

7. What does Lewis mean when he writes about a house of cards?

8. What is the difference between how Lewis earlier understood biblical consolations and how he came to understand them?

9. What hopeful similes does Lewis use to describe a moment he experiences one night?

10. What human conditions does Lewis admit that he can never fully examine?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

After a long period of feeling left outside a locked door, of feeling that God was unresponsive, Lewis begins to sense God's presence on the other side of the door and that the door is unlocked.

1) Discuss the idea behind the biblical promise cited by Lewis, "Knock and the door shall be opened." What does that mean for Lewis and his interaction with God? What does Lewis ask that the phrase might mean?

2) Discuss the other quote to which Lewis refers in Chapter Three, "To him that hath shall be given." What does that phrase mean to Lewis?

3) What, if any, value do either or both of these quotes have for those who grieve?

Essay Topic 2

Lewis offers a passage in Chapter Four that is full of similes. Describe the passage, referring to the similes. What does the moment Lewis describes mean? How does it reveal Lewis's progression through deep pain and sorrow? What is noticeably different from Lewis's reflections earlier in the book, especially the first two chapters?

Essay Topic 3

Select three reflections that either resonated with your beliefs or that you had trouble comprehending or believing. Reflect on each one. Be precise when you refer to the selected reflections. Explain what captured your attention about each reflection. Discuss how each reflection might affect you. Also describe how or how not, the book as a whole might have meaning in your life.

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