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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 term indicating class status had George's father used to describe Lisa?

2. For what kind of company does George's father currently work?

3. How many minutes is the total length of the pornographic video that upsets George?

4. Which object belonging to George's mother went "missing in the panic and aftermath" (179) of her death?

5. George's mother died as a result of experiencing an allergic reaction to what kind of drug?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the conversation George has with Mrs. Rock about her mother's criticism of a certain politician.

2. What clues led George to think that her mother had been put under surveillance prior to her death?

3. What location in her bedroom does George take great pains to hide from her father and why?

4. What does George tell her father after he discovers her in the garden engaging in her daily ritual?

5. What piece of information did George's mother forget during their time in Italy and why did this event upset George?

6. Discuss an instance when Smith injects humor into a memory George has of her late mother.

7. What kinds of conflicts have been revealed so far within the text? Give a brief example of at least two conflicts unfolding at the center of the text.

8. What two contradictory terms does George use to describe the atmosphere of the Italian town called Ferrara that she had visited with her mother and brother Henry?

9. What is the significance of the record album entitled Tell Laura I Love Her?

10. What is the significance of Saint Catherine within the narrative?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How are the topics of romantic relationships, love, and sex treated within the novel How to Be Both and how does their treatment relate to the novel's depicted messages?

Essay Topic 2

Examine the novel How to Be Both from an Existential perspective. What elements of life does it suggest hold the most meaning and why?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the ways in which the themes of adaptability and resignation appear within Smith’s novel How to Be Both. What message is Smith sending about these two themes over the course of the narrative?

(see the answer keys)

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