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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 subjects does Olanna intend that she, Muoleku, and Ugwu will teach?

2. Which of the following does Ugwu associate with witchcraft?

3. Which of the following makes of car does Ezeka drive?

4. On which of the following days is Odenigbo’s child delivered?

5. Which of the following kinds of trees surrounds the house Kainene buys?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the stated significance of Port Harcourt to Biafra?

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

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

5. What are Olanna’s initial clues about Odenigbo’s infidelity to her?

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

7. What reasons does Ugwu note for suspecting foul play from Odenigbo’s mother?

8. What reason is given for many African countries refusing to recognize or support Biafra?

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

10. What advice does Ifeka give Olanna after Odenigbo’s infidelity?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider Olanna’s comment that “love comes first and the reasons follow” (286). Is the comment accurate? What in Half of A Yellow Sun and in experience suggest that it is or is not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Consider Odenigbo’s apologies for infidelity in Chapter 20. How much credence should be lent them? What in Half of A Yellow Sun accounts for that amount of credence? 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?

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