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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did the author's father die?
(a) He hung himself.
(b) He drowned in a river.
(c) He was shot on a hunting trip.
(d) He was hit by a truck.

2. Who is the heroine in Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady?
(a) Marie Antoinette.
(b) Edna Waldrop.
(c) Emily Wharton.
(d) Isabel Archer.

3. How old was the author when her father died?
(a) 19.
(b) 16.
(c) 21.
(d) 22.

4. In one of the illustrated panels in Chapter 1, the author says, "When I grow up, my house is going to be all metal, like" what?
(a) "A prison."
(b) "A submarine."
(c) "A silo."
(d) "A spaceship."

5. Where did Bruce Bechdel marry his wife?
(a) France.
(b) Spain.
(c) Germany.
(d) Italy.

Short Answer Questions

1. Alison Bechdel's Fun Home is a graphic memoir that is filled with literary allusions. What book by James Joyce is alluded to with the title of Chapter 1: "Old Father, Old Artificer"?

2. What gift did the author's mother give to Joan immediately after Bruce's funeral?

3. The author compares her aesthetic to her father's in Chapter 1, saying that she was Spartan to her father's what?

4. How old was F. Scott Fitzgerald when he died?

5. Where did the author's mother study acting?

Short Essay Questions

1. How and why does the author allude to It's a Wonderful Life in Chapter 1?

2. What does the title of Chapter 3, "That Old Catastrophe" allude to? Why is this significant?

3. How would you describe the language style of Fun Home?

4. How does the author describe her impressions of her father's death in Chapter 2?

5. What does the title of Chapter 4, "In the Shadow of the Young Girls in Flower" allude to?

6. How affectionate does the author describe her family when growing up?

7. How does the author describe her "coming out" to her parents in Chapter 3?

8. How does the author describe her father's profession and obsessions in Chapter 1?

9. How does the author describe Joan in Chapter 3?

10. What facts are established through the author's exposition in Chapters 1 and 2?

(see the answer keys)

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