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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 is the Begum?

2. Who goes with Ritu on her pilgrimage to the Himalayas?

3. What does the narrator say she learns about the house where Olivia and Douglas used to live in the February 16th journal entry?

4. Who gives Olivia's letters to Marcia?

5. What paperwork does the narrator keep on her small desk in Part 1, Section 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Dr. Saunders' opinion of Olivia in Section 35.

2. What does the narrator reveal about Douglas's life in Section 30?

3. What is the wish that the narrator makes with the red strings, and why?

4. Describe the narrator's clothing and her reasons for choosing them in Section 4.

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

6. Is Chid a tolerant person?

7. Why does Inder Lal's mother take Ritu on the pilgrimage?

8. Explain the importance of the piano in Section 20.

9. What kind of a person is Chid when the narrator first meets him in Section 7?

10. How does the Nawab show his contempt for Saunders in Section 24?

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

The use of religion and culture to justify a character's actions occurs in different ways in Heat and Dust.

1) Find 3 incidences of these occurrences and discuss their impact on the story.

2) Explain the differing attitudes toward abortion that are seen in the story.

3) Choose a character from the novel and explain how he or she is judged based on that person's religious or cultural beliefs.

Essay Topic 3

Symbolism occurs in many forms in Heat and Dust. Select 3 symbolic items from the list below, or elsewhere in the story. Answer the questions that follow about those 3 items. Red strings, the piano, Olivia's letters, Chid's robe, the Nawab's palace, the Saunders' baby's grave, the grove, Baba Firdau's shrine, the royal tombs, Maji's hut.

1) Explain the significance this item has to the story and to specific characters.

2) Relate the symbolic item to the culture in which it exists.

3) Discuss what the story would lose without the inclusion of this symbolic item.

(see the answer keys)

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