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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. To which of the following does Okeoma compare Olanna?

2. Which of the following books is given to Olanna’s schooling efforts?

3. For which of the following does Olanna note Odenigbo works?

4. What news does Olanna receive when Odenigbo visits her apartment after his infidelity?

5. In which of the following societies does Olanna take office?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reasoning is given for resisting Ugwu as a teacher?

2. What reasons does Ugwu note for thinking Muokelu is a poor teacher?

3. What reasons does Ugwu give for wanting to see an Indian film after the festival with Richard?

4. What is Kainene’s reaction to Richard’s determination to attend a memorial for Winston Churchill’s death?

5. What, ultimately, is the obunigwe?

6. What reasons does Olanna note for her anger at Odenigbo for his infidelity?

7. What lures Ugwu outside the first time a conscription attempt is made on him?

8. How does Olanna describe Muokelu?

9. How does Muokelu apologize to Olanna after commenting aspersively on Kainene?

10. What reason is given for the lack of supplies at the relief center?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explicate the irony of the heavyset reporter Charles saying, “I wish I could do more,” while eating from a candy bar (464).

Essay Topic 2

Kainene remarks that “There are some things that are so unforgivable that they make other things easily forgivable” (435). What is meant by the remark? What in Half of A Yellow Sun supports it, and 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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