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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. Who does Russ meet in Arizona when he goes to help the Navajos in Tuba City?

2. What action does Marion take when she reads the note from Perry that he is at the Haefle’s party without her permission?

3. Why did Pastor Haefle see Russ in his office after the Haefle party?

4. What do the Navajos do to the sleeping area of the church group to show aggression to the group?

5. What is the nickname Frances and Russ call their mutual sexual tension?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kind of relationship does Russ have with his favorite daughter Becky?

2. What is the “experiment” that Frances wants to do with Russ?

3. What does Russ feel when Marion rejects him in bed for the first time?

4. What signal does Russ get that Frances is lusting in her heart for him as he is lusting after her?

5. What does Marion plan to achieve by going to Kitty’s house on Maple Street to confront her?

6. Why does Clem hate Russ for not going to war when he was at an age to do so?

7. Why does Becky have an argument with Clem regarding Tanner?

8. Why does Marion want to confess her unrequited love of Bradley to her son Perry?

9. Why does Russ go to the other side of town to the Black Church each week to do humanitarian charity work?

10. Why did Russ feel that he was a failure sexually to Frances?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about how for her whole life, Marion was jealous of her sister Shirley and her laissez-faire or casual perspective of men. By the end of the novel, Marion had the same ideas as Shirley in regard to Marion’s ideas of the worth of men in a woman’s life. Focus on the life events that changed Marion to become more like the carefree sister Shirley whom she never appreciated when she was alive.

Essay Topic 2

Compose an essay that explains the details of Russ’s humiliation, focusing on what happened, what characters were involved in the event, and what was the aftermath of the humiliation on Russ’s work as a pastor, his family and his life in general.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay as to why Becky felt throughout most of the novel that her parents were working in concert to ruin her life. All teens may feel this way from time to time, but what concrete evidence did Becky have that her parents were out to get her and make her perpetually unhappy?

(see the answer keys)

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