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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 9 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Seraphina feel when she became a licensed women?

2. What is Seraphina's daughter's name?

3. Why does Seraphina feel her husband is incapable of inspiring anger in her?

4. What do the women who visit Hadley tell her that do?

5. What does Seraphina accuse her husband of when he suggests she is angry?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Seraphina feel about her life as a mother?

2. How does borrowing a baby make Hadley feel about her lot in life?

3. How does Paul behave around Seraphina?

4. Why do the women who come to Hadley's apartment say they think she is one of them?

5. What does one of the woman who comes to Hadley's apartment say to Hadley when she says that borrowing a baby is not a crime?

6. Describe Hadley's experience at the library when she looks for a baby to borrow.

7. How does Seraphina discover her nannies are gone and how does she react?

8. Why does Hadley consider running away with Gemma when she takes her from the library?

9. Who comes to Hadley's apartment after she arrives with Gemma and where are they from?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay comparing and contrasting Hadley and Seraphina in "Graceful Burdens." What details help develop their character and what do these details tell you about them? What is their background? How do they feel about their current reality? In what ways are they similar or different? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing the genre classification of "Graceful Burdens." What is the genre? What are other genre options? Why did Roxane Gay choose this genre for the subject matter? What are examples from the text that support this genre classification?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay analyzing narrative voice in Roxane Gay's “Graceful Burdens.” Include thoughts on how the narrative voice of the story is effective in conveying the story’s themes of control, gender, and freedom.

(see the answer keys)

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