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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 Elaine try to do instead of playing with her friends?

2. How did Elaine feel about coming to her art retrospective?

3. Who offered Elaine a place to stay in Toronto?

4. How old does Elaine turn soon after the incident with the hole?

5. Why doesn't Elaine want to look at her paintings?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't Charna want Elaine to be in the gallery when people begin arriving for the art retrospective?

2. How does Elaine react whenever someone asks her for money?

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

4. How does Elaine feel when she first meets Cordelia?

5. In the last chapter, what does Elaine realize about the day she fell into the ravine?

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

7. How does Cordelia act when Elaine's father comes to check on the girls watching the parade?

8. How does Elaine react to Jon's ex-girlfriend's anger?

9. How does Elaine behave during the interview?

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

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

The novel is full of imagery of sight, sound, and smell. Discuss the use of imagery in the book.

1) How does Elaine describe the city of Toronto? How do Elaine's descriptions reflect her feelings?

2) How does the imagery of Elaine's paintings relate to the novel and Elaine's life?

3) What imagery is associated with different periods in Elaine's life?

4) Discuss the imagery of blood in the novel. What does the blood from Elaine's self-mutilation symbolize? What about the blood of miscarriages, suicides, and the botched abortion?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the use of point of view in the book.

1) Why is this book told in the first person, from Elaine's point of view? How would it be different if it were told by a different narrator?

2) Does Elaine provide an accurate account of the world around her? How is her view of the world biased or flawed?

3) What would the reader gain from understanding Cordelia's perspective, or the perspective of another character?

(see the answer keys)

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