View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Less than how many of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published in her lifetime?

2. What does Mattie mail to Royal Loomis at the end of the novel?

3. Why has Miss Baxter lost her job at the school in Chapter 27?

4. By what mode of transportation is Mattie leaving in the end of the novel?

5. Where does Mr. Maxwell always sit in the dining room at the Glenmore?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Mattie and her coworkers elicit revenge on Mr. Maxwell in Chapter 31?

2. How does Mattie’s relationship with Royal Loomis progress in Chapter 18? How does this relate to Grace Brown’s story?

3. What information does Miss Wilcox confess to Mattie in Chapter 17?

4. What information does Martha Miller present to Mattie regarding her engagement to Royal Loomis in Chapter 29?

5. What does Mattie discover through Grace Brown’s letters in Chapter 19? What are her thoughts on this discovery?

6. What work has Mattie begun doing for Miss Wilcox in Chapter 17? What does she discover when she arrives?

7. How does the apprehension of the three trappers affect Weaver Smith in Chapter 24?

8. What does Miss Wilcox send to Mattie in Chapter 27? What news does she relate in her letter?

9. What does Mattie learn about Royal Loomis’s involvement in the foreclosure of Emmie Hubbard’s home in Chapter 29?

10. How are the themes of duty and responsibility illustrated in Chapters 23-26?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Nonfictional and Fictional Elements

a. Discuss the nonfictional elements presented in A Northern Light. How accurate is the author’s depictions of these events? What sources did the author use in writing the novel?

b. How does the author effectively integrate the nonfictional elements of the novel with the fictional elements? Are you drawn to Mattie’s story more or to the story of Grace Brown? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and discuss the character of Royal Loomis in the novel. What is Grace’s relationship with Royal? How long have they had this relationship? How does the relationship evolve in the course of the narrative?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 854 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample