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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 did Isabel find suspicious when they first arrived in Riverbend?

2. How did Isabel know that Ruth was afraid of Prentiss?

3. What was Ruth's main responsibility at the laundry?

4. How did Ruth react to Isabel when Isabel first greeted her after many years apart?

5. Why did Walter speak loudly to the horses?

Short Essay Questions

1. What clues led Isabel to believe that Aberdeen was lying about his butcher shop job?

2. Why did Isabel want people who saw her and Ruth wandering around town to think they were slaves?

3. When Isabel arrived at Riverbend, what had changed about Ruth since the last time she saw her?

4. What did Isabel believe was the worst thing that slave owners did to slaves?

5. Why did Isabel see when she looked at Ruth through "a stranger's eyes" (91) in Chapter XVI?

6. What is the narrative point of view of Ashes?

7. Why did Isabel say to Curzon, “I know better than you what the pain of fire can do a person” (66)?

8. Why did Isabel and Curzon need to hide from the British soldiers?

9. What kind of stories did Isabel tell Ruth while she was sleeping?

10. Why did Ruth call the donkey Thomas Boon?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the scene in which Ruth reveals her fear of being abandoned by Isabel because of her being "stupid." Isabel tells Ruth that she is not stupid. Do you think Ruth is "stupid"? When answering this question, be sure to consider Ruth's strengths as well as her weaknesses.

Essay Topic 2

Throughout Ashes, we learn about Isabel's inner world through her self-talk as narrator. What does the reader learn about Isabel by being able to witness her thinking? How does Anderson's choice of a first-person limited narrator affect the plot and mood of Ashes?

Essay Topic 3

Anderson often includes visual and auditory imagery to help set the mood in tense, nostalgic or otherwise emotional scenes. Write an essay that gives examples of this and describe how Anderson's imagery effectively helps set different moods.

(see the answer keys)

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