View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Dean laments that he has "only done one thing seriously since" (54) he was what age?

2. After Evvie has known Dean for two months, she considers him to listen "like a" (73) what?

3. Evvie recalls incurring a bruise on which part of her body when "she'd once slipped" on the "slick staircase"(10)?

4. Dean says that which character(s) had "pushed [him] really hard" (75) to go to an All-Star Camp for baseball?

5. At what type of school does Ted, the man Evvie introduces to Dean, coach football?

Short Essay Questions

1. What object does Evvie place on the mantel just before she opens the door to meet Dean and what is the object's significance?

2. Name and discuss a second coping mechanism Evvie used to combat the feelings inspired by her unhappy marriage, according to the narrator.

3. Which comment of Frank's makes Evvie furious during Thanksgiving dinner and why?

4. What agreement do Evvie and Dean make at the end of Fall: Chapter 4?

5. For what major change is Evvie preparing when the reader first meets her in the prologue entitled First?

6. What is the "one thing" (54) Dean claims to have done seriously ever since the age of ten?

7. How does Holmes weave together issues of class with issues of domestic abuse?

8. What do Evvie's set of dishes with the yellow flowers on them symbolize?

9. How did Dean end up attending Cornell, according to him?

10. What event is revealed at the end of the prologue to have brought a halt to Evvie's plans?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Holmes’s use of metaphor, simile, imagery, and other literary devices as a means to send particular thematic messages within the narrative of Evvie Drake Starts Over.

Essay Topic 2

What is the function of Andy’s character within the novel? Discuss the characterization methods used by Holmes in depicting Andy and include in your discussion the reasons that Holmes utilizes him in these particular ways.

Essay Topic 3

What messages does Holmes send about domestic violence in Evvie Drake Starts Over and what scenarios are employed in order to send these messages to the reader?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,322 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample