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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. In what season was Jude found, according to the priests?

2. What adjective does Malcolm mentally use to describe his future inheritance?

3. In what state was Jude's very first home located?

4. What regular activity does Jude undertake in order to exercise his legs and back?

5. Who is Felix?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Yanigihara want the reader to view Jude's decision to keep his past a secret and how do you know?

2. Who is Felix and what is significant about his emotional breakdown?

3. Who is JB and how does he enter the story?

4. Discuss a time when Yanigihara uses a metaphor to represent some aspect of friendship.

5. In what ways does Jude feel out-of-step with the rest of his peers' experiences?

6. What does Willem say in the opening scene when he is asked about his parents and why is it significant?

7. What impetus prompts Malcolm to come out to his parents?

8. Discuss a quality that Jude has in common with either Malcolm or JB.

9. Characterize Willem's relationship with his parents prior to their deaths.

10. What two elements of Willem's life in Wyoming does he miss?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How are the topics of romantic relationships, love, and sex treated within the novel A Little Life and how does their treatment relate to the novel's depicted messages?

Essay Topic 2

How does the motif of dreams appear within A Little Life and how does its treatment relate to the novel's depicted messages?

Essay Topic 3

Determine Yanagihara’s message within the novel A Little Life regarding the idea that euthanasia should be an option available for people who truly wish to end their lives.

(see the answer keys)

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