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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 object does Mimi smash while weeping in Chapter 13?

2. In the 1960s, Don Galvin becomes the executive director of which organization?

3. In what year does Mimi meet her future husband, Don?

4. What does Donald allow Mary to do in the prologue to the book?

5. What does the Farm teach the Galvin boy who lives there in Chapter 21?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Robert Freedman discover in Chapter 24? What does he develop as a result?

2. Who is Marilee? How does she reflect Donald’s increasing instability in Chapter 7?

3. What does the community think about the Galvins, as explained in Chapter 15?

4. What happens to Donald’s marriage to Jean in Chapter 10? What is the result?

5. What hobby do the Galvins enjoy, as discussed in Chapter 1? What draws them to this hobby?

6. Who is Father Freudenstein and why does he become close to the Galvins in Chapter 3?

7. What is the Farm? What does Michael learn there in Chapter 21?

8. How has the situation gotten worse at home, as demonstrated in Chapter 22?

9. What change does Mary experience to her home situation in Chapter 23?

10. What happens to Brian in Chapter 16?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hidden Valley Road opens with an epigraph taken from Anne Tyler, who writes: “The clearest way that you can show endurance is by sticking with a family.” Using textual evidence to support your claims, show how Tyler’s words apply to Hidden Valley Road.

Essay Topic 2

Schizophrenia devastates six of the Galvin sons, but it affects each of them differently. What similarities and what differences do the Galvins experience regarding their illness?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay explaining the significance of the title of the book, Hidden Valley Road. How does the title reflect the Galvin family? How does the title reflect the book’s themes? How does the title’s meaning change over the course of the book?

(see the answer keys)

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