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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. Chapter 2 of Part III: Vanities reveals that Jude now lives in an apartment belonging to whom?

2. To what type of company event does Jude invite Willem at the end of Chapter V: The Happy Years?

3. Who is Kit?

4. Chapter 2 of Part III: Vanities reveals that Jude has made what career change?

5. Willem's final thought before death is of whom?

Short Essay Questions

1. What objects solidify Jude and Willem's romantic relationship in the eyes of their friends?

2. What is ironic about the mistaken identity of the person Jude hallucinates is trying to hurt him?

3. How does Harold find out that Caleb has been physically abusing Jude?

4. Harold reveals that he had first learned about Jude's rituals of self-harm in what manner?

5. What major turning point in the novel occurs within Part V: The Happy Years, in relation to Jude and Willem?

6. What is Willem's agent's reaction to his decision to stay in New York after Jude's suicide attempt?

7. At what aspect of Jude's presence in the courtroom does Harold marvel and why?

8. How is foreshadowing used within Harold's discussion of Jude's skills as a lawyer?

9. What methods does Jude use in order to hide the signs that he is being abused?

10. For what reason does Jude's suicide attempt fail?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Yanagihara's choice to tell the story of A Little Life using a third person omniscient narrator. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what are Yanagihara’s intended effects on the reader?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze the interplay between the resolution of A Little Life and one of the novel's main messages. How does Yanagihara make connections between these elements and how does their juxtaposition help them get across one main message of the novel?

Essay Topic 3

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

(see the answer keys)

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