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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 did the Drs. Gryglewicz give to the author's mother on her opening night of the play in Chapter 6?

2. By the end of what month does the author say her "earnest diary entries had given way to the implicit lie of the blank page" in Chapter 6?

3. How many residents does the author describe in her hometown in Chapter 5?

4. What was the author's favorite page in the Wind in the Willows coloring book?

5. What phrase began creeping into the author's journal entries in April, according to Bechdel in Chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Bechdel write regarding the trial of Oscar Wilde in Chapter 6?

2. Why does the author say that her family witnessed lots of sunrises in 1974?

3. What is the significance of the locusts that the author describes in Chapter 6?

4. How does the author describe the changes in her diary in Chapter 6?

5. How did the author feel about rehearsing lines with her mother in Chapter 6?

6. What impacts of her parents' "creative solitude" does the author describe in Chapter 5?

7. What does the title of Chapter 5, "The Canary-Colored Caravan of Death" allude to?

8. What is revealed of Bruce Bechdel's obituary in Chapter 5?

9. What did the author learn about obsessive-compulsive disorder from reading Dr. Spock?

10. How did the author overcome her obsessive-compulsive tendencies?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the events surrounding Bruce Bechdel's trial in the narrative. What was Bruce Bechdel charged with? By whom was he charged? What was the outcome of the trial? How did the trial affect the author and her family?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the nonlinear structure of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. In what ways is the narrative nonlinear? Why do you think the author chose to relate her story in this format? How does the author build tension in a nonlinear narrative style?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's allusions to Henry James and his works in Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Whom does the author associate with Henry James novels? Why? What correlations does she make?

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