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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. To what object does Evvie compare time when she discusses 22- and 23-year-olds in Chapter 11?

2. What event marks the first breach of the pact between Evvie and Dean?

3. Which character meets Evvie in the parking lot on the day of the tree-planting ceremony celebrating Tim's life?

4. Evvie takes extreme exception to her father's sentiment during the Thanksgiving blessing that he is prouder of her for what feat than he is of any one of her other accomplishments?

5. To what location does Evvie go in Fall: Chapter 1 when she awakens from a dream about Tim?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss an instance when Holmes uses a literary device to comment on the nature of youth.

2. What is the history of the friendship between Dean and Andy?

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

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

5. Describe Dean's reaction to Evvie's story about the reporter who came by asking about Dean.

6. Name and discuss one coping mechanism Evvie used to make it through her days during her marriage to Tim.

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

8. What is revealed to have happened the one time when best friends Andy and Evvie had tried to view one another in a romantic light?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is the topic of hope treated within Evvie Drake Starts Over and how does its treatment relate to the novel's depicted messages?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Holmes's choice to tell the story of Evvie Drake Starts Over using a third person limited omniscient narrator. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what are Holmes’s intended effects on the reader?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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