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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. How many addenda accompany Grafton’s letter to Everell (169)?

2. Magawisca’s comment that “I cannot send back the bird that has mated to its parent nest” (241) offers an example of which of the following?

3. Which of the following questions does Gardiner address in his letter to Wilton (251)?

4. On which of the following streets does the house of government sit in Boston in the novel?

5. With which of the following does Hope Leslie gift Antonio?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reasons does Digby’s wife give against Hope Leslie going out for a nighttime walk on the island?

2. What reasons does the narrator give for the Fletchers’ retention of Jennet despite her disagreeable qualities (194)?

3. What physical signs indicate Esther Downing’s upset after she and Hope Leslie return to the Winthrop residence after the reunion with Everell (186)?

4. What justification does the narrator give for the description of “a pilgrim mansion” (197) in the terms used in the novel?

5. What reasons does Gardiner note for betraying Magawisca as Hope Leslie meets with her and her own sister?

6. How is Pynchon reported to have deduced Hope Leslie’s involvement in Nelema’s escape?

7. Consider Grafton’s comment that “this unlucky prayer-book is gnawed to mince-meat by the mice, and not another book in the library touched. I longed to commend the instinct of the little beasts, that knew what good food was” (266). What is the irony in her comment?

8. What reasons does Gardiner write for preferring Hope Leslie as a potential love interest?

9. Explicate the comment from Magawisca that her people “never turned their backs on friends or enemies” (241).

10. How does Magawisca disguise herself to meet with Hope Leslie in the graveyard?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Karcher notes that “The main imperative of Sedgwick’s era was to create a national literature that differentiated itself from British and European precedents by capitalizing on what made America unique: its landscape, history, folk heroes, regional idiosyncracies [sic], potpourri of races and ethnic groups, and democratic social structure” (12). Does the novel successfully contribute to that imperative? What in the text indicates whether it does or not, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Sedgwick takes many words to describe the physical scenery of the natural world in her novel. What effect would the descriptions likely have had on Sedgwick’s ORIGINAL readership? What in the text would prompt that effect? How would the effect have been achieved?

Essay Topic 3

Consider Magawisca’s question that “here is my mother’s grave; think ye not that the Great Spirit looks down on these sacred spots, where the good and peaceful rest, with an equal eye; think ye not their children are His children, whether they are gathered in yonder temple where your people worship, or bow to Him beneath the green boughs of the forest?” (243) Does the novel as a whole respond in the affirmative to the question, or in the negative? What in the text indicates the response? How does it do so?

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