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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 Alice do between meals in jail?

2. What does Howard leave at the house?

3. To which Biblical person does Alice liken herself?

4. Alice's trial is set for which month?

5. How much money does Howard accept for the farm?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Howard's interpretation of Alice's fleeing from the girls when they visit the jail for the first time?

2. Why is the lunch between Theresa and Alice so awkward?

3. How do Howard and the girls prepare to move out of the farmhouse?

4. How do the girls adapt to "hobo life" as Howard calls their apartment adventure?

5. How is the Goodwin family's life in the apartment radically different from the farm where they belong?

6. What is Howard's perspective on the Goethe quote carved above the courthouse entrance?

7. What are Alice's thoughts about religion as she is locked up?

8. What is Alice's perspective on Nellie's so-called generosity?

9. What is happening in the Goodwin's lives that starts to let them feel normal again?

10. How does Howard describe his state of confusion in Chapter 11?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Project into the future ten years and write a brief synopsis for the lives of Howard and Alice and Theresa and Dan. Be sure to include emotional states as well as physical characteristics, geographic locations, work, socialization, and other life-defining features.

Essay Topic 2

Explain the concept of loneliness as it exhibits in the story. Which of the characters are lonely? Are they all lonely in some way? Explain loneliness and the methods and attempts to overcome it.

Essay Topic 3

Describe the overall setting for the novel. Why does Hamilton use the setting she does? What is the time period of the story? How important is the time period to the attitudes and issues of the characters?

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