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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. How does Thorfinn deal with the tension in his family in chapter 6?

2. What two Norday inhabitants seem untouched by the chaos and destruction of the aerodrome workers?

3. Who is Billie Holm?

4. Where does Thorfinn see peat smoke rising from on what he thinks is a deserted Norday?

5. After Tina Lyde is chased off by Thorfinn's sister in chapter 6 what does Tina do?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the Westvoe farm catch on fire and burn to the ground?

2. What does Thorfinn find when he goes, after many long years, back to the loft where he had locked up Mara's seal skin?

3. What does Thorfinn take with him when he is liberated from the German war camp?

4. Why do the seal people rush back into the sea?

5. Who is Sophie?

6. How is the story Mr. Simon is telling the class (early in chapter 5) relevant to the fantasy sequence in which Thorfinn marries a seal wife?

7. What kind of food does Mara the seal wife like to eat?

8. According to chapter 5, how did the lairds of old manage to be so wealthy?

9. Why did Sophie come back to Norday Island in the end?

10. Why are all the doors gone from the island homes when Thorfinn returns to Norday after many years absence?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the effect of the Aerodrome project upon the Island of Norday? How does this project change their way of life forever? What do the workers bring? What do they destroy?

Essay Topic 2

In the tight knit community of Norday, each person plays a pre-ordained role which is vital in some way to the health of the entire community. Write an essay describing the role of the laird in Orkney culture, both in time past and in present day (1930s) Norday. What role did the laird play and why is the present laird, although much less powerless, still important? What is his function in terms of the culture? Or does he have one any longer?

Essay Topic 3

Write a detailed character study of Jacob Olafson. Why is he in the book? What does he represent in terms of Thorfinn's journey? What is he representative of in terms of the book and its overall theme?

(see the answer keys)

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