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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 it that David urges Petrus to do on this evening?

2. What animals has Petrus brought onto his land as he prepares for the event he will have in the next few days?

3. Who is the new person living at Petrus's house?

4. In what town does the Isaac family live?

5. Who is it that accosts David and has a threatening conversation with David about staying with "his own kind."

Short Essay Questions

1. What is ironic about David's suggestion at the end of Chapter 22 that Lucy is as humiliated as a dog?

2. How might one interpret Elaine Winter's treatment of David at the grocery store?

3. In Chapter 16, when David talks with Bev about his fear of Lucy living alone on the farm, he says he was there and knows what Lucy has been through. Bev responds that he was not there for her. How does David react to that claim?

4. The description of Teresa in the last chapter is, "She wants to be rescued--from the pain, from the summer heat, from the Villa Gamba, from her father's bad temper, from everything." This is about David's fictional character, but fiction is based upon what writers know. Does this description hint at David or Lucy's need for respite?

5. After Lucy is raped and she and David give their report to the police, David asks her why she omitted the fact that she was raped. What reason does she give her father for this omission?

6. How might Lucy's and David's switching of bedrooms be construed as symbolic of some other switch between them?

7. David mentions that he has "never been given to lingering involvements" as he tries to figure out what is driving him to go see Melanie's play. What then motivates him to go?

8. How is David's remark "If she [Bev] is poor, he is bankrupt," that concludes this chapter revealing?

9. What does David's description of Desiree suggest?

10. Compare or contrast David's explanation of his punishment to Lucy's stance on staying on the farm.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the parent and child role in Lucy and David's relationship in Chapter 9 & 10. Explore who is taking on the nurturing and care-taking responsibilities and who is being coddled and disciplined. Also explore what role the countryside setting plays in this role-reversed relationship.

Essay Topic 2

What is it that brings about the ethical and moral transformation of David in Chapter 14? Is this transformation the result of his experiences and trauma of the violent attack or is he "replacing" the vitality that Lucy lost?

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?

(see the answer keys)

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