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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. In what way is Hanna deceiving her husband?

2. What does Milly look like in the story "Best Features"?

3. How does the stone thrower's wife feel about her child with the stone thrower?

4. What do Father Minty and Rebekah do for dates?

5. What is Father Michael Patrick Minty's nickname?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the reader learn about the stone thrower through the eyes of his glass wife at the end of the story?

2. Why does the narrator's mother in the story "A Pat" tell her to befriend the saddest and most desperate people?

3. What is the narrator's husband, David, concerned about in relation to the narrator's health in the story "Bone Density"?

4. Where does the stone thrower first meet his glass wife in the story "Requiem for a Glass Heart"?

5. Why is Natasha in "Break All the Way Down" repelled by dogs?

6. What secret of her own does the narrator keep from her unfaithful husband David in "Bone Density"?

7. Why did Father Michael Patrick Minty not really know his father in the story" Bad Priest"?

8. What does Natasha finally do that her husband has repeatedly been asking her to do at the end of "Break All the Way Down"?

9. Why does Hanna drive to the college town nearby and invite sexual encounters with college-aged boys in secret?

10. What does the stone thrower's wife enjoy most about her days?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the story "Water, All Its Weight," both Bianca's parents and her husband eventually abandon her because of the rot and decay that accompany her wherever she goes. Write an essay exploring how Bianca seems to handle being abandoned by the people closest to her at different stages of her life.

Essay Topic 2

Throughout this book of short stories, Gay explores the lives of many different kinds of women of different races, ages, socioeconomic classes, and sexual orientations. Many of her female characters have suffered terrible traumas and abuses. Why do you think Gay titled her book Difficult Women, and how do you think she would define so-called "difficult woman" after reading all of the stories in this collection?

Essay Topic 3

In the story "Florida," Gay uses a variety of different characters' voices and points of view to offer vastly different perspectives on the same community. Write an essay analyzing how Gay's use of different perspectives and characters' voices affects the narrative and the reader's experience of this story.

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