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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. How did Father Minty's own father die?

2. What secret of the stone thrower's does the stone thrower's glass wife discover?

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

4. What is one of the things the stone thrower's wife does during the day?

5. What does Ben ask Natasha repeatedly to do that is related to their dead child?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Hanna feel about her husband Peter in the short story "How"?

2. Why does the narrator in "Open Marriage" seem confident her husband will not follow through on his aspirations to have affairs with other women?

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

4. Why does Natasha seem to feel responsible for her child's fatal accident in "Break All the Way Down"?

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

6. How did Hanna and Laura first become friends?

7. What does Father Michael realize at the end of "Bad Priest" about his mother's knowledge of his private life?

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

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

10. What does the narrator of "Bone Density" find in her husband's suitcase that confirms her knowledge that he is having an affair?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing how Father Michael Patrick Minty's character faults and flaws in the story "Bad Priest" are related to his position of power, authority and prestige in the church. What does Gay seem to be trying to say about religion and faith through her depiction of Father Minty's character?

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

Write an essay analyzing what you think the narrator's source of power and control over her husband in the story "Open Marriage" seems to be. Why does the narrator seem so completely unconcerned when her husband suggests they engage in an open marriage?

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