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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 is Michael's response when Noah asks him where he heard a conspiracy theory about the poster's subject?

2. To what area of New York City does Noah take Michael to when he first brings him home?

3. Noah tells Michael in Chapter II: Twenty Questions that he "spent most of [his] career working on" (68) what?

4. How many photographs are contained within the mailer Noah finds in Chapter 1: The Call?

5. In what year did Noah's maternal grandfather die while living in France?

Short Essay Questions

1. Which photograph within the biography puts off a distinct sense of danger and why?

2. What plan emerges that requires Michael to apply for an expedited passport?

3. In what way was Noah's mother Margot involved in her father Pere Sonne's photography career?

4. What does the landline phone symbolize within Chapter I: The Call?

5. For what purpose does Donoghue use a beanbag as a metaphor for Noah's treatment by his parents during his childhood?

6. Discuss the possible significance of the novel's epigraph and name two themes that appear within its content.

7. Why is Chapter II entitled Twenty Questions and what is the title's significance?

8. What is the significance of the book entitled Pere Sonne: A Life's Work featured in Chapter III: Takeoff Speed?

9. In what way does Chapter I: The Call end on a hopeful note concerning Michael and Noah?

10. In what setting does Chapter III: Takeoff Speed begin and what is revealed about Michael in this setting?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Donoghue's treatment of truth, lies, and hypocrisy within the text of Akin.

Essay Topic 2

How does Donoghue use sensory details in order to strengthen the text’s messages? Discuss at least two passages that include the use of sensory details and pull quotes from these passages to support your claim.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the significance of the final passages included at the end of Akin.

(see the answer keys)

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