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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 Jamison want to buy at the drug store?

2. In which English city does Jamison spend a few months in?

3. Which Welsh poet does Jamison reference in this chapter?

4. What poet does Jamison think of when she is walking through the university gardens?

5. What does Jamison find too emotional?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Jamison's image of herself inaccurate?

2. How does the concert in chapter 6 benefit manic depressives?

3. How does Jamison's brother save her life in chapter 5?

4. Why does Jamison start reading children's books?

5. How does Jamison hear about David's death?

6. What happens to Jamison as she is walking through a garden campus in chapter 2?

7. Why can Jamison not go to a Ivy League school?

8. How does David help Jamison get over a depressive episode?

9. What reason does Jamison give for connecting manic depressives with creativity?

10. What is an example of Jamison's manic behavior?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is Jamison's book important in changing people's perceptions of mental illness? How much does it help that she is a well established doctor? Is there a danger that people will connect such illnesses with high achievers?

Essay Topic 2

Write a 500-word essay revolving around one of the following statements:

1) By connecting manic depression to creativity there is a danger Jamison could romanticize the illness.

2) Jamison's recovery from her illness occurred at a time when most people begin to develop emotional maturity.

3) Jamison is often too subjective and fails to address the fact medication may not benefit everybody.

Essay Topic 3

Identify the main themes of the story. Why do you think these themes are so important to the story? How does Jamison use character and setting to express these themes?

(see the answer keys)

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