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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 the musical instrument that David takes up and composes music on?

2. After Lucy and her father discuss their version of their stories that they told the police, what is it that he is bothered by?

3. After this evening conversation, when does Bev call David?

4. In what condition is David's house when he returns to it?

5. Where does David cook for himself now that he is reestablished in the town Lucy lives?

Short Essay Questions

1. When David rhetorically asks, "Against this new Petrus, what chance does Lucy stand?" what is his implied answer?

2. What has Lucy's banjo become for David?

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

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

5. What is one to make of Petrus's lack of reaction to David's accusation that one of the men at his party is the assailant?

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

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

8. 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?

9. What is there about Lucy's description of her rape that she thinks that David cannot before this have understood?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Chapter 12. Explain how Lucy's rape altered her personality. Discuss Lucy's remarks about the issue of racism and inherent guilt in South Africa and how this guilt influences her beliefs and actions thus far in the novel.

Essay Topic 2

Chapter 16. David cares very much for his daughter, yet repeatedly feels that he ineffective in his goal to help make her life easier. Is he actually ineffective in her eyes or does he just imagine that Lucy sees him this way?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 11, review David's insistence that "scapegoating" does not accurately describe the actions taken against him. Why does he feel this is incorrect? How does he correct Lucy as to his actions involving Melanie?

(see the answer keys)

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