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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. Why was the early 1960s so frightening for the narrator?

2. What does Helene insist the narrator wear as a child?

3. Who goes to the hospital in Chapter 1?

4. What does Helene tell Marie she is practicing the summer she is 12?

5. Who does Pop ban Marie from seeing when she is a teen?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Aisha?

2. What happens when Marie first gets to her mother's house with the boys?

3. Where does Marie take Thomas for dinner?

4. Who is the first person Marie understood to be a spy?

5. What is Marie like as a child?

6. What happens at Lenox Lounge with Thomas?

7. What news does Helene give Marie at Tompkins Square Park?

8. Who took over Agathe's job as the mother figure when she left?

9. Who comes to Martinique on Marie's request?

10. Why is Marie ashamed of the memory of Helene's 13th birthday?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay in which you analyze Marie's anxieties about war. In what ways does the Cold War shape and inform that inherent fear? Use examples from the text to support your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you analyze Marie's decision to become a Fed. Why does she become a Fed, and what does she begin to realize about this decision as the story unfolds? Use examples from the text to support your ideas.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about how Marie's relationship with her mother changes throughout the novel. What event(s) stimulate the change(s)?

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