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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 does Papa rant about on the train ride home from Uma’s new husband’s place?
2. What is the purpose of Anamika's beauty for her husband?
3. How does Uma get home from her trip she sneaks off to make?
4. What does Uma notice about Aruna in Chapter 8?
5. What happens when Uma is told she has the mark of the Lord?
Short Essay Questions
1. Why does Papa want the family to eat meat, and who will not do so?
2. What makes one possible husband for Uma not ideal, but why do Mama and Papa decide to negotiate anyway?
3. Why does Uma sneak out of the house one day?
4. What does Uma do one night when Mama and Papa have gone out?
5. How does giving birth to a male child affect Mama's status?
6. What happens when Aruna comes to visit her family several years after her marriage?
7. How is Anamika's life after her marriage?
8. Why do Mama and Papa not approve of Ramu?
9. How does Uma feel about her eligibility for marriage and how is she expected to act?
10. Who are the main Indian characters?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Chapter 6 makes very clear the questionable prospects of young girls who are married off to seemingly suitable husbands. Anamika's fate is sealed at the hands of her abusive husband and mother-in-law. She cannot leave the marriage because leaving would bring shame on her own family according to Indian culture. Even Uma notes the irony in the situation that the beautiful and gifted Anamika, to whom life has always been kind, suffers a miserable fate, even more miserable than the suffocating and hopeless existence lived by Uma.
a) Do you think arranged marriages should be legal? Why or why not? Use examples from Fasting, Feasting to support your answer.
b) Discuss the concept of family honor in the context of Anamika leaving her marriage. Use examples from Fasting, Feasting to support your answer.
c) Compare and contrast Anamika’s fate with Uma’s fate.
Essay Topic 2
The author connects Uma's strange, almost epileptic, fits to religious or spiritual events. The first time Uma collapses in one of her fits, she is in the presence of Mother Agnes at the Catholic convent school. Uma spins out of control, writhes on the floor, and shrieks hysterically when Mira-Masi tells Uma that she has the mark of the Lord on her. It is not clear yet why these fits happen at these specific times; but the author may be trying to symbolize Uma's need for release from her imprisoned life. Spirituality may be one method of achieving some sort of freedom. The fits may also symbolize the precipice of a new life for Uma who is likened to an infant when the pilgrim at the ashram hits Uma on the back to restart her breathing just as if Uma is freshly born again.
a) Discuss the reasons Uma’s fits might be considered either an escape or defense mechanism.
b) Discuss the symbolism of Uma’s fits in relationship to life with Uma’s parents.
c) Do you think Uma has control over her fits? Why or why not?
Essay Topic 3
Sometimes, a book has more of a character-driven plot rather than action-driven, and sometimes it is the other way around. Some books seem to balance the two. Discuss the following:
What do you think it means to say that a plot is character-driven? Action-driven? How do you think a plot differs if it is character-driven versus action-driven? Which type of plot do you find more interesting? Why? Do you think it is possible to have a plot where action and character development share equal time? Why or why not? What type of plot do you think Fasting, Feasting is? Explain your response.
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This section contains 1,112 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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