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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 was Sylvia Huxley’s profession before she was imprisoned?

2. What does Bride say Booker was using her for?

3. What does Sweetness say her skin color is?

4. Why does Sweetness’ husband leave her?

5. What standard does Bride say she holds her relationship with Booker to?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Sweetness say she treated Bride the way she did?

2. Where does Sylvia Huxley say she found a refuge from prison life?

3. What caused Julie to try to kill herself?

4. What kind of friend is Brooklyn?

5. What does Bride find when she stars going through Booker’s possessions at her house?

6. What kind of gesture does Bride make to Sylvia Huxley, and why does it go so wrong?

7. Why does Sweetness say she told Lula Ann to call her Sweetness instead of Mama?

8. What does Lula Ann’s dark skin mean to her mother?

9. How is Bride’s mother different after the courtroom than she usually is, in her treatment of Bride?

10. What does Sylvia Huxley say made Decagon better than Brookhaven?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast God Help the Child with reverse chronology stories like Benjamin Button. How is Toni Morrison’s treatment different? How is it similar? What makes Toni Morrison’s version unique?

Essay Topic 2

When is God Help the Child most itself? What is its characteristic passage or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 3

What is the role of women in God Help the Child? How are women portrayed, and what kinds of roles are open to them? How would you evaluate Morrison’s depiction of women in this novel?

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