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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. Who calls Nana to tell her the bad news about Mary?

2. What kind of vehicle runs over and kills Mary?

3. What thought generally keeps Amma from skipping school, even when she wants to do so?

4. In Chapter 28, it is made very clear that Belinda believes what to be a choice?

5. Chapter 25 begins how long after Chapter 24 ends?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Amma's teddy bear symbolize?

2. How does Donkor use foreshadowing within the scene when Amma is waiting for Roisin at Starbucks?

3. What reasons does Roisin offer for her ghosting of Amma and how do they all connect?

4. Why is Belinda's wrist hurting her "during the long week of complete silence between Belinda and Amma" (189)?

5. What is Belinda's reaction to the place to which Amma takes her on their eighth trip home from Abacus College?

6. For what reason are Belinda and Amma stuck together at home for two solid days in Chapter 19?

7. What kind of meltdown does Amma have in Waitrose?

8. To what type of location does Amma take Belinda on the girls' eighth trip home from Abacus College?

9. What does Amma believe about the need for love to be public?

10. What misconceptions does Belinda have about homosexuality?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sensory details are used frequently by Donkor in order to create vivid pictures of each character's progression through the narrative of Housegirl. Choose three scenes in which sensory details are heavily used and discuss how the sensory details used serve Donkor’s creation of vivid characters to populate the narrative.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze Donkor’s novel from an Existential perspective. What elements of life does the novel suggest hold the most meaning and with which of its themes do these beliefs dovetail?

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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