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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 response does Price say he received when he asked God how much of this he would have to endure?

2. How many representations does Price say he made of the thing Marcia Bennett urged him to portray?

3. What did Marcia Bennett urge Reynolds Price to portray?

4. How does Price describe radiation therapy?

5. What does the first doctor examine, when Price finally goes in?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Price say he asked for the morning after he heard the voice tell him what kind of suffering he would have to endure?

2. How does Price say his friends and family reacted to his illness?

3. Describe Price's condition when he emerged from surgery.

4. Describe Price's physical deterioration after radiation therapy.

5. How does Price say his relationship with Jesus changed throughout the course of his cancer treatment?

6. What was the first prognosis for Price's condition?

7. Describe Price's profound dream.

8. What was Reynolds Price's condition at the beginning of the "A Whole New Life"?

9. What was Price's condition when he stayed with Marcia Bennett?

10. What radiation regimen was Price placed on?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The AIDS epidemic began in the U.S. in 1981, only a few years before Price's illness. How does the spectre of AIDS appear in the book, and how does Price handle the panic and dread that comes from a possible death sentence (even though his condition was quite different from AIDS)? Are there thematic similarities with AIDS patients, that give AIDS a resonance in "A Whole New Life"?

Essay Topic 2

Describe Price's family and community as they are described in the book. How close are they? What are their core beliefs? How did Price fit in with them? Well, or badly? Using examples from the text, describe Price's relationship with the people who were close to him when he became sick.

Essay Topic 3

What is Reynolds Price's literary style like, and how does Price's language itself reveal the effect his illness had on him? Where is his language most powerful, in his life? What experiences does it fail to do justice to? How does he compensate for the weakness of his language?

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