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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. In Chapter 7, Mary and Belinda communicate with one another using what method?

2. What quality of a particular singer's voice does Amma name when she explains her affinity to Belinda?

3. After listening for a few moments to a singer Amma likes, Belinda declares that the singer is obviously feeling what emotion?

4. What mode of transportation do Amma and Belinda use to get from the airport to Nana's house?

5. From whose perspective is Chapter 6 narrated?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Belinda come to be employed with Aunty and Uncle as a housegirl?

2. Describe Donkor's use of allusion within Chapter 9.

3. What element of the burial scene in the prologue most upsets Belinda?

4. What change in narrative perspective occurs at the start of Chapter 6?

5. What simile does Mary employ in order to describe her idea of an automaton lifestyle?

6. For what reason does Nana bring Belinda to a shopping district in London?

7. What major difference in relation to pets does Belinda relate to Mary in their first phone call after being parted?

8. Discuss a striking use of metaphor that occurs in the prologue.

9. What does the kitchen sink symbolize in relation to Mary and Belinda's relationship?

10. In what way does the sound motif enter the narrative in relation to Belinda's feelings toward Mary?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explicate the theme of control within Housegirl. What is Donkor’s message regarding control and how do you know?

Essay Topic 2

Trace the characterization arc of Amma’s character throughout the novel Housegirl. Discuss whether Amma is a round or flat character and whether Amma is a static or dynamic character.

Essay Topic 3

Look carefully at the passages of Housegirl that describe the close relationship between Belinda and Mary. What is Donkor’s purpose for discussing at length the nature of the connection between Mary and Belinda? How does Mary’s death play into this purpose in both the prologue and final chapter of the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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