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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 is NOT one piece of advice Plum gives LuAnne when she writes to Plum to tell her that her stepbrother is sneaking into her room at night?

2. At what location does Plum first notice that a girl is following her?

3. How does Plum describe the hair of the girl who has been following her?

4. What is stored in the room in which Plum discovers Julia?

5. How old is Verena?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of Leeta's name?

2. How does the motif of the italicized word "Burst!" (42) coincide with the theme of self-hatred?

3. What are Plum's mother's feelings regarding Plum's job at Austen Media?

4. What significant event happens in the spring of Plum's junior year of high school?

5. Discuss the significance of Plum's clothing organization choices in the first part of the novel.

6. How does Janine's outburst at the Baptist Diet meeting foreshadow Plum's own coming changes?

7. What allusion is being made within the line, "On top of a cabinet, a large orchid was trapped under a bell jar" (85) and what is the author's purpose for using it?

8. What does Plum mean when she says that it takes her awhile to "fully inhabit" (83) her New York life again after she finishes speaking to her mother on the phone?

9. What is the author's purpose for including the enormous list of lipstick colors within the narrative?

10. What act does Dr. Ormond Brown believe has precipitated the murders of Michael Simmons and Davis Green?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the author's use of humor alongside humanist messages within the novel.

Essay Topic 2

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Sarai Walker's novel Dietland. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the book.

Essay Topic 3

Explicate the theme of indoctrination within the novel, particularly in relation to the novel's protagonist. What is the author's message regarding societal indoctrination and how do you know?

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