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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 Sita buy at the pawn shop?

2. In the beginning of chapter 6, what man does Karl meet?

3. Who is the only person towards whom Mary has romantic feelings?

4. What can one see from the window of Karl's hotel room?

5. What city does Sita visit in chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Karl hurt himself jumping on the bed in chapter 6?

2. Explain the town's reaction to Mary's accident in the ice in chapter 2.

3. Describe the children's experience on the train in "The Branch."

4. Why does Martin Miller keep Mary's baby brother?

5. How does the empty jewel box in chapter 1 shape Mary's character?

6. Explain the relationship between Mr. Ober and Mary's family, as well as the effects his death has on them.

7. How does Sita feel when Pete gives Mary the cow's diamond? Why?

8. Describe the group of men who gather in the butcher shop in chapter 4.

9. How does Karl act when he meets Jude Miller? Why?

10. Why does Mary feel afraid at the beginning of chapter 1 when Karl leaves?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe in detail the character of Fleur Pillager and her role in the novel.

Essay Topic 2

Explicate Sita's hallucination in which Karl sinks into the ground. What happens? When does the hallucination begin? How do the other characters react and how would the scene have been changed if Erdrich had chosen a different narrator?

Essay Topic 3

How does Erdrich use different narrators to create different effects? Choose a scene and describe how its narrator conveys the situation from a particular perspective. Then explain how the reader's perception of the scene would have been different if Erdrich had chosen a different narrator.

(see the answer keys)

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