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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 does the narrator like Tad Allagash?

2. What article is the narrator currently working on?

3. What animal does the narrator purchase on the way back to work?

4. Why is Amanda embarrassed for the narrator to meet her mother, Dolly?

5. Where was her first overseas modeling trip?

Short Essay Questions

1. What contrast is the author making between the people of New York City?

2. What point of view does the author write in, and how is it distinguished?

3. Why, after all the time that has passed, is the narrator still trying to track Amanda down?

4. Why does the narrator purchase the knockoff Cartier watch on the street?

5. Why does the narrator strike up a conversation with Marianne, the archivist?

6. What is worrying the narrator as he begins work on the French article?

7. Why does the narrator have trouble being in his apartment?

8. Why does the narrator feel he is so different from the Hasidic Jews he encounters on the train?

9. How do the narrator's inner identity and his outer persona conflict?

10. What does the narrator hope for as he turns in an article that he knows is unfinished?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the narrator and his mother.

1) Why does Michael resent that the narrator came only days before their mother died? Why did the narrator stay away so long?

2) What does the narrator's mother reveal to him on her deathbed? How does this experience affect the narrator?

3) Why does the narrator think he has reacted so badly to Amanda's leaving?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast Vicky and Amanda.

1) What are some of Amanda's qualities? How do they mesh with the narrator's when the two first met?

2) What are some of Vicky's qualities? How are they a match or a mismatch for the narrator?

3) Which relationship is more promising for the narrator---a reconciliation with Amanda or new chapter with Vicky? Which woman is more appropriate for him?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the conflicts between the narrator's perceived inner self and his outer persona.

1) Who does he really think he is inside?

2) Why is he so reliant on Allagash and the status of his New York social life?

3) How does his job fit into that image?

(see the answer keys)

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