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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. By which of the following names does Ugwu note Nnesinachi sometimes calls him?

2. With which of the following does Harrison boast of cooking for Richard?

3. Which of the following does Richard buy on his way to weekend with Kainene?

4. Which of the following meanings does Kainene ascribe to Olanna’s name?

5. To which of the following levels of schooling had Ugwu attained before entering Odenigbo’s service?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Olanna’s parents report planning to flee Biafra?

2. What reasons does Olanna give for preferring train travel to plane travel?

3. What reasons does Olanna have for not accompanying Odenigbo to his conference in Ibadan?

4. How are Richard’s university-provided accommodations described?

5. What reasons does Ugwu give for hoping Odenigbo does not ask him to recite poetry from class?

6. What does Olanna report to Odenigbo upon her return to Nsukka after the second coup?

7. What things does Olanna note having left behind in Nsukka when she evacuates to Abba?

8. Why does Olanna note thinking that her driver needs to believe in the Sardauna’s survival?

9. What is the first ethical question Odenigbo poses to Ugwu?

10. How does Ugwu’s aunt describe Odenigbo at the beginning of the novel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the following passage: “We never actively remember death,” Odenigbo said. “The reason we live as we do is because we do not remember that we will die” (415). Is the comment correct? What in Half of A Yellow Sun and in experience demonstrate that it is or is not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

After the revelation of Richard’s infidelity to her, Kainene does not turn him out, but claims such “would be too easy” (321). Is she correct in the claim? What in Half of A Yellow Sun and in experience suggest that she is or is not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the poem Ugwu notes having memorized in Chapter 4:

I can’t forget that I’m bereft
Of all the pleasant sights they see,
Which the Piper also promised me.
For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,
Joining the town and just at hand,
Where waters rushed and fruit trees grew,
And flowers put forth a fairer hue,
And everything was strange and new. (105-06)

What resonance does the poem have in its context in the novel? How does that resonance emerge?

(see the answer keys)

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