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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. How many children does Emmie Hubbard have?

2. What’s the name of the boat that is dragging the lake in the beginning of the novel?

3. Pa tells Mattie in Chapter 12 that if she leaves the family to go to college, then he will do what?

4. How is Uncle Fifty related to Mattie?

5. How much money does Uncle Fifty promise to give Mattie for her trip to attend college?

Short Essay Questions

1. What book does Miss Wilcox give to Mattie in Chapter 15? What are Mattie’s impressions of the book?

2. What is Aunt Josie’s reply when Mattie asks her for financial assistance in Chapter 8?

3. What parallels does Mattie make between her situation and that of Grace Brown in Chapter 10?

4. How is the character of Weaver Smith described when he is introduced in Chapter 2?

5. How does Mattie feel about her involvement in the crisis that occurs in the opening of the novel?

6. What does Aunt Josie discover about Emmie Hubbard in Chapter 14? How does she make this discovery?

7. How is the theme of identity explored through the characters of Mattie, Weaver, and Minnie in Chapter 9?

8. What conflicts regarding the expected roles of women are introduced in Chapter 1?

9. What does Mattie discover through Grace Brown’s letter in Chapter 16? What does this clue indicate to Mattie?

10. What clue does Mattie discover in Grace Brown’s letters in Chapter 13? What does she do with this information?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Mattie’s indecision about the proposition of marriage to Royal Loomis. What to Mattie would be the benefits of marrying Royal? What would be the disadvantages? How do you think you’d feel if you were in Mattie’s position?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss the murder of Grace Brown at the Covewood Lodge in 1906. Who was tried and convicted of the murder? What transcripts remain of the trial? What evidence was presented? Where in the Adirondacks did the murder occur? How does the author incorporate this setting into A Northern Light?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Mattie’s relationship with Miss Wilcox and Miss Wilcox’s response when Mattie informs her of her plans to marry Royal Loomis. Why do you think Miss Wilcox is disappointed? How does Mattie’s situation reflect on her own?

(see the answer keys)

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