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. The streets of the Italian town in which the museum lies are "full of people" (214) using which two forms of transportation?

2. How many pounds had George's mother generally paid for one of George's ideas she wanted to use in a Subvert ad?

3. How many minutes at a time is George usually able to watch the pornographic video in her daily ritual?

4. What was the difference in age between George's mother and father at the time of their wedding?

5. What position does Mrs. Rock hold within George's secondary school?

Short Essay Questions

1. What irony does George note about her father's profession?

2. What timeline does George provide on the first page of the section entitled Eyes and what is its significance?

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

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

5. Explain the revelation that is finally made about the source of George's incessant feelings of "guilt and fury" (210) that result in repetitive thoughts.

6. How did George's mother react to George's confession about Lisa?

7. What does the damage in George's house symbolize?

8. Discuss a metaphor Smith uses to indicate George's concern that she may be unable to love.

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

10. What had been George's family's New Year's Eve ritual and which members of the family had participated?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Smith’s messages about guilt and responsibility within How to Be Both. Focus especially on elements such as George’s guilt about the secret action she had taken to separate her mother from her friend Lisa.

Essay Topic 2

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

Essay Topic 3

Why does Smith provide a first-person narrator to provide the perspective of Francesco, while utilizing a third-person narrator to represent George’s voice? How do these choices serve the purposes of the text? Discuss how Smith’s choice of point of view helps to advance the treatment of at least three particular themes over the course of the text.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,483 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample