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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. What topic do Olivia and Douglas start to discuss during her growing friendship with the Nawab?

2. What do Olivia and Douglas argue about when the prince extends a second visit to the palace?

3. Who accompanies the narrator to Husband's Wedding Day?

4. How do Ritu's screams affect Chid?

5. Who visits Olivia four days after she and Douglas attend their first dinner party at the palace?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Olivia and Douglas's relationship in Section 23.

2. Explain how the narrator's sleep is interrupted in Section 10.

3. Explain how the narrator tells Chid and Inder Lal about her pregnancy in Section 28.

4. Do you think Chid is a sadhu?

5. Describe Chid's health in Section 30.

6. Does the narrator trust Maji?

7. What does Inder Lal think of India?

8. Why does the narrator write to Chid's family in Section 31?

9. Why is Husband's Wedding Day significant to the narrator in Section 15?

10. Describe the narrator's first night, and impressions of, Bombay.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The power to change one's self and transform one's circumstances is a theme in Heat and Dust.

1) Explain how the dual stories of Olivia and the narrator reflect this theme.

2) Discuss the impact of setting and nature on a personal transformation in the story.

3) What one character transformation that did NOT occur in the story could have changed the entire course of the novel? Explain your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Select two characters from the story that have different perspectives of the same event. Write two letters, one from each character addressed to the other, describing their event and what happened. For example, you might use Douglas and the Nawab's account of Olivia's pregnancy, Chid and Inder Lal's perceptions of the narrator's journey, or Dr. Saunders' and the Begum's perception of Olivia's abortion.

Essay Topic 3

The amount of freedom and choice varies greatly among the characters in Heat and Dust. Compare and contrast how each set of characters below is trapped by, wastes or uses their given freedom in the story.

1) Douglas and the Nawab.

2) Olivia and the Narrator.

3) Chid and Ritu.

(see the answer keys)

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