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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 store does Elaine go to?

2. Why does Elaine stop reciting the prayers at church?

3. What relationship does Cordelia have to the narrator?

4. What are the girls playing when they put Elaine into the hole?

5. How does Elaine feel about the boys?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the major element of her life that Elaine comes to terms with at the end of the novel?

2. What is Elaine's opinion of Susie, in her art class?

3. Why do Jon and Elaine get married?

4. What do Elaine and Cordelia do at lunch time, when they first go to high school together?

5. Why doesn't Jon want to come to Elaine's art show?

6. What is the condition of the city where the narrator used to get off the streetcar, compared to how the narrator remembers it?

7. How does Elaine feel about Carol, Cordelia, and Grace when she sees them everyday after she starts sixth grade?

8. How are the paintings at the gallery organized when Elaine arrives at the art retrospective?

9. How do Elaine's parents feel about Stephen's death?

10. Describe how Stephen dies.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the portrayal of men in the book.

1) How are Elaine's lovers, Josef, Jon, and Ben, portrayed in the book? What is Elaine's attitude toward her lovers?

2) How do Elaine's relationships with men differ from her relationships with women? Why is Elaine more comfortable with men than with women?

3) How is Elaine's father portrayed in the book? How is her brother portrayed? How do her relationships with her father and brother affect her relationships with other men?

Essay Topic 2

Elaine's relationship with Stephen is an important aspect of her life. Discuss the role of Stephen in the novel.

1) What role does Stephen play in Elaine's childhood? How does growing up with a brother affect Elaine's perception of men and women?

2) What role do Stephen's ideas about time and physics play in Elaine's life and artwork?

3) How does Stephen's death affect Elaine and her family?

Essay Topic 3

Emotional pain in the novel is often linked to physical pain. Discuss the relationship of physical and emotional pain in the novel.

1) Why does Elaine injure her fingers and feet? How is her physical pain linked to emotional pain?

2) Discuss Elaine's experience of physical and emotional pain in times of crisis, such as when she is trapped in the ravine and when she is left in the dark hole.

(see the answer keys)

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