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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. Which of the following kinds of tree grows at Olanna and Odenigbo’s home in Abba?

2. Which of the following does Ugwu offer to bring to Olanna during her convalescence?

3. About which of the following does Richard’s servant rebuke Kainene’s?

4. Which of the following meanings does Kainene ascribe to her own name?

5. To which of the following does Richard submit his first article about the violence in Nigeria?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way does Richard disappoint the Igbo elder with whom he discusses ancient bronze pots?

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

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

4. How does Richard initially react to the attack on the airport as he travels back from London?

5. Why does Richard initially assume Kainene is the mistress of a Nigerian politician?

6. How are Olanna’s eyes depicted as she flees back to Nsukka after the second coup?

7. What reason does Ugwu voice for not killing a gecko?

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

9. What chores does Ugwu adopt early in his service to Odenigbo?

10. Why does Richard note wanting Kainene to accompany him to Martin’s wedding in London?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider Richard’s attitudes toward being a writer expressed at the beginning of Chapter 3. How do they shift throughout the novel? What effect do the shifts have? How are the shifts indicated? How do they generate their effects?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Of the divisions of Half of A Yellow Sun present in its published edition (this guide breaks the long fourth part), the longest is Part 4: The Late Sixties; the shortest is Part 3: The Early Sixties. Does the disparity in length reflect a disparity in narrative importance? How or how not?

(see the answer keys)

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