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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 irritates Papa when they go to the park?

2. What does Uma drink when out to dinner?

3. When is the new baby boy born?

4. What does Uma notice about Aruna in Chapter 8?

5. Why does Uma's world suddenly brighten one day in Chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Uma do one night when Mama and Papa have gone out?

2. What does Mira-Masi tell Uma one day about the mark of the Lord, and how does Uma react?

3. Why does Uma sneak out of the house one day?

4. Who are the main Indian characters?

5. How does Aruna feel about Uma's lack of marriage prospects?

6. How does Uma and her family learn that the prospective groom is not interested in Uma?

7. What happens when Aruna comes of age for marriage?

8. How does Mama and Papa's moods affect the rest of the household?

9. How do Uma and Aruna respond to news of their mother's pregnancy?

10. How does giving birth to a male child affect Mama's status?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Foreshadowing is used in almost all works of fiction. Discuss the following:

a) What is foreshadowing? How many incidences of foreshadowing are in Fasting, Feasting? How does foreshadowing contribute to a book's suspense?

b) Discuss an example of foreshadowing in “Fasting, Feasting” including why you believe it is foreshadowing.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Discuss one of the following:

a) Thoroughly analyze how the setting informs the plot in Fasting, Feasting.

b) Trace and analyze one major theme of Fasting, Feasting. How is the theme represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

c) Trace and analyze two secondary themes of this book. How are the themes represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

(see the answer keys)

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