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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 cannot compare with physical pain?

2. What kinds of mortal questions does the author think that God cannot answer?

3. For the author, what element does praise always contain?

4. When does the author claim he is at his worst?

5. To what does the author compare physical pain?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the difference between how Lewis felt at the beginning of the book and how he feels at the end of his reflections?

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

3. What is an imperfect religious image with which Lewis is familiar? What is Lewis's reflection on this image?

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

5. What does Lewis want when it comes to reality vs. ideas about reality?

6. In what way does Lewis's previous acceptance of death and mourning alter with H.'s death?

7. What feelings follow from Lewis's experiences when he is not thinking about H.? How is his feeling related to his grief?

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

9. What choices does Lewis think that people have when it comes to their ideas about God?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter Four, Lewis describes two enormous gains that relate to God and to H. Describe those gains. Why does Lewis not call them "lasting" gains? For all that he gained, what does Lewis chide himself for as far as his earlier desires were concerned? How does recognition of these gains come to Lewis? Use Lewis's poetic description of how they do, and do not, come into view.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Lewis begins to ponder H. and the possibility of her continuing existence. In the beginning of his reflections, Lewis discovers that H. has become inaccessible in different ways. Needless to say, this causes him great disturbance. Discuss what sets off Lewis's thoughts about H. and where or if she "is." What does Lewis discover is different in her case than was true for all others whom he had known who had died? What related issue does Lewis's trouble regarding H. introduce? This topic is one that runs through the book and is more central than Lewis's difficulties about H. What does Lewis finally determine is the distinction between the others who had died and H.?

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