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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 metaphor does the author use to describe grief in the beginning of the fourth chapter?

2. What is the only thing the author thinks matters about his anger toward God?

3. In Chapter Three, what is the author finally able to do?

4. What action does the author say is useless if God hurts to heal?

5. For whose sake was the author's plea, "Come back"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Lewis write that his notes ultimately have been about?

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

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

4. At the beginning of Chapter Three, when does Lewis acknowledge that he does not think about H.? What is life like when Lewis is not thinking about H.?

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

6. In addition to a sword, what other metaphor does Lewis use to describe H. to establish a balanced view?

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

9. What enormous gain in his sense of God and of H. has Lewis made by the fourth chapter?

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 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.

Essay Topic 2

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.?

Essay Topic 3

For the first two chapters, Lewis is immersed in emotions, in raw agony. In the third chapter, he takes a significant turn. As Lewis points his ability to reason toward his grief, he begins another stage in the process of his grieving.

1) What questions does Lewis ask about H.'s death and what it means for the whole of life? When Lewis writes about the "problem of the universe," what does he mean?

2) Describe the difference between what Lewis believed before H. died and what he questions after she dies. What is the main difference between the two conditions of belief? What is important about the difference for the possibility of a sane and rational life of faith?

3) Regarding faith, what Lewis believed prior to H.'s death has everything to do with his faith in God and in what he had been taught. How does Lewis think about his faith after H. died?

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