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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. Ned asks Alida a question about the ghost's "signalement" (84). What is he asking about?

2. Mary thinks about the "latent" significance of a piece of information on page 83. What kind of meaning does this information have?

3. From what period is Ned and Mary's new home?

4. What is Ned's joking theory about why the ghost is so hard to see?

5. When the story refers to "Boyne," who or what is being referred to?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Alida Stair tell the Boynes about Lyng?

2. Describe the emotional condition that Mary is in in section "IV" of the story.

3. What draws the Boynes to England?

4. How does the narrator describe the life that the Boynes had in America?

5. What does Mary remember happening earlier in the day in October when she and Ned first climbed Meldon Steep?

6. What does Ned tell Mary about the Blue Star lawsuit?

7. What horrifying chain of events does Mary understand once she sees Bob Elwell's picture?

8. What do Mary and Ned plan to do with their time at Lyng?

9. What news does Mary learn from a newspaper clipping that someone sends her in the mail, and why is she so upset by it?

10. In the beginning of section "IV," how much time has elapsed since Ned's disappearance, and what has been happening in that time?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that explores the narrative voice of "Afterward" and takes a position on how this narrative voice contributes to the story's overall effect. Be sure to give specific textual evidence for your position.

Essay Topic 2

What is the meaning of the expression a "hothouse flower"? Look up this term and then write an essay that explores the meaning of the way Mary spends her time on the day of Ned's disappearance. Be sure to offer textual support for your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that takes and defends a position about the emphasis Wharton gives to the physical evidence of Ned's emotional state. What is happening when he seems anxious, and what is happening when he seems relieved? From whose perspective is all of this shown, and why? How do these choices contribute to the story's overall meaning and effect? Be sure to support your claims with specific textual evidence.

(see the answer keys)

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