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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. When one of the women at the hearing rails against David's behavior, what is the particular word used in reference to his relationship with Melanie that he feels is so inaccurate?

2. Which of the following meetings with Melanie does David propose and Melanie agree to?

3. What is the university that is near where Lucy lives?

4. As David walks home from the library, why does he muse that his weeks are now "featureless?"

5. As they near their house after their walk, what do Lucy and David hear?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do you interpret Melanie's lukewarm acceptance of David Lurie into her flat and into her life?

2. Interpret the last sentence of the chapter, "A shadow of envy passes over him for the husband he has never seen."

3. Of what significance is it that Soraya wiped off her makeup so readily when David asked her to?

4. After the attack on Lucy's farm, how does David try to comfort Lucy and what is her reaction?

5. David describes Melanie as "clever enough, but unengaged." What might the attraction to such a person suggest about David?

6. After class, David comments that if he were alone with Melanie, he would call her "his little dove" and embrace her. Why then does he treat her so sternly?

7. When David first learns of the charge of harassment, what is his estimation of Melanie's active part in the charge?

8. Although David ultimately agrees to volunteer to work for Bev Shaw, what is his first reason for not wanting to work as a volunteer?

9. When Lucy asks why David isn't trying to justify his actions at the university, what reason does he offer?

10. What does Bev's acceptance of David, even after he tells her of his forced resignation, suggest about her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Chapter 16. How might the party Petrus has be a symbolic event in the story? Might this event crystallize conflict in the story?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 1, the reader meets Soraya and in Chapter 2, the reader meets Melanie. Compare and contrast these two women. What do they have in common? What are their differences?

Essay Topic 3

Chapter 22. When Lucy tells David the name of the rapist next door, Pollux, she spells it, and answers that it is not an unpronounceable name. She furthers her retort by saying, "And David, can we have some relief from that terrible irony of yours?. . .For years you used it against me when I was a child, to mortify me." How can David's casual, but frequent irony have been mortifying to a child? What is the effect of his using this wit to argue his points?

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