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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 Mary learn about the Blue Star Mine deal from her visitor in section "V"?

2. When Mary finally catches up with Ned on that October day, what is he doing?

3. Why does Mary have a hard time seeing the details of the man's appearance on that day in October?

4. In section "V," who comes to visit Mary?

5. As Mary thinks back over the events of October, she sees a figure coming toward the house again. Who is it?

Short Essay Questions

1. How has Ned's mood changed on the morning after he and Mary first discussed the Blue Star lawsuit, and what does Mary believe changed his mood?

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

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

4. In the narrative present at the beginning of the story, where is Mary and what is she doing?

5. On the day of his disappearance, what is so frustrating for Mary about her conversation with her staff about where Ned is?

6. What is the name of Ned's book, and what is the thematic significance of this title?

7. Why does Parvis come to see Mary near the end of the story?

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

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

10. What draws the Boynes to England?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Edith Wharton once wrote in a letter to a friend, "The American landscape has no foreground and the American mind no background." She was talking about gardening and landscaping, which was a special interest of hers, and justifying her taste for importing European landscape fashions to her own property. Consider this quote in relationship to the setting and characterizations in "Afterward." What do you think that Wharton meant by the quote, and does her having said it make her seem more or less like the Boynes? Write an essay in which you explore the quote and then make and defend a claim about how it sheds light on Wharton's relationship to the Boynes.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about "Afterward" as an example of American Realism. Offer textual evidence for your arguments and be sure to cite outside sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that affirms, refutes, or denies the proposition "Although Edith Wharton had enlightened ideas for a woman of her time and social class, her short story 'Afterward' demonstrates that her thinking was still limited by her time and social class." Be sure to give clear textual support for your reasoning.

(see the answer keys)

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