View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Lester feel about his wife?

2. Why does Lester shake his head at his own increasing lack of judgment after waiting at the fish camp for Kathy for half an hour?

3. What effect does the ruby in Behrani's ring have on Lester?

4. What does Kathy think her brother will do when he finds out what has happened?

5. What does Kathy do to make things better at the house while she waits for Lester?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Lester feel that his anger, which is leaving him in the Behrani house, is something precious that he needs?

2. Nadereh berates Behrani while he repairs her mother's table, but he lets her insults "pass over like training jets with no ammunition." Why doesn't he respond to her tirade, and what does she finally say that causes him to enter the argument?

3. Why does Lester conclude that the Behranis have told him the truth about Kathy's situation?

4. How does Kathy feel as she goes back into the house to wait for Lester?

5. Why does Kathy go sit in the car to wait for Lester to return? Why doesn't she stay inside the house?

6. What is nazr?

7. Kathy says that she only has one hope now while she's waiting for Lester to return. What does she hope?

8. Behrani says that he sometimes believes he is being punished. What does he think he is being punished for, and how is this similar to Kathy's feelings?

9. Lester watches his own image in the elevator doors spread out from the middle, then disappear. How is this symbol a metaphor for his situation?

10. When Lester asks Kathy whether she really wanted to die, what does she answer and why is this answer important?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The breaking of promises is a significant theme in this story. Behrani, Kathy, and Lester all make vows and break them. Choose one of the three characters. Analyze the promises they make and their motivation for breaking those promises. For example, the HALT advice for addicts is useful, but ignored by Kathy. How might the story have been different if she and/or Lester had followed the HALT prescription?

Essay Topic 2

Does your personal opinion about these characters change as the story progresses? Do you take sides? Do you feel that one is right and the other wrong, that both are wrong, or that both are victims of someone else's error? Using the notes you made in your notebook during the early days of reading this book, discuss the changes in your own impressions of the characters. If your feelings changed, tell why. If they did not change, tell why.

Essay Topic 3

Events in Iran many years before the opening of this story shape the thinking of the characters in the present. The photo of Behrani with the shah is an important symbol in this story. In this essay, consider the effect of the photo on Nadereh, on Soraya, on Soraya's in-laws, on Lester, on Kathy, and on Behrani himself. Use quotations from the story in each instance.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,051 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample