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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. At which of the following did Fife study as an undergraduate?

2. The comment that “It’s in English, but he has no understanding of the words. It’s as if they’re in Russian or Serbian” (76) offers an example of which of the following?

3. Which of the following flights does Fife take from Washington to Boston?

4. Which of the following instruments does Fife report Amanda plays?

5. Which of the following companies do the Chapmans own?

Short Essay Questions

1. From what source do the Chapmans have money?

2. How is the weather on the day of the interview described?

3. What reason does Fife give to Amy for not having previously told her about his past?

4. What reason does Fife note Emma has for sleeping in a separate bedroom from him?

5. What reasons does Fife give for having married Amy?

6. What technique does Fife use to overcome panic aboard the plane?

7. What reasons do the Chapmans give for offering Fife a business position?

8. What reasons does Fife give for appreciating the sounds of jet engines from inside the plane?

9. What objection do the Chapmans initially raise to Fife’s son’s name?

10. Who, per Fife, is Howard Levy, and why is he imprisoned?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the following: “Fife asks Sloan if she can imagine believing […] that she’s already ruined her life. He means destroyed her future, shut off all possibilities of ever realizing the American dream, or the Canadian dream, although he doesn’t think there actually is a Canadian Dream” (57). Does the novel bear out the last assertion, that there is no Canadian dream? How or how not?

Essay Topic 2

Consider the following passage:

There’s no such thing as the end of childhood, [Fife] says to Emma. It’s only innocence—infancy—that actually comes to an end. That’s when childhood begins, and childhood is a region, not a marker. And it is vast and extends even into old age and death. It’s like a coastal marsh between the land and the sea, he explains. It’s a zone of dwarfed trees and mudflats and estuaries, where waters flow back and forth in opposite directions following the pitch and fall of the land and the phases of the moon and the shifting patterns of the winds. (179)

Does the novel support Fife’s assertion about the nature of childhood? How or how not?

Essay Topic 3

Explicate the implications of the comment, “It’s like trying to tie a novel to the author’s real life, he says. You can’t do it” (106).

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