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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. How old was Gay when she experienced her life-defining trauma?

2. What did Gay tell her mother she would decorate her apartment with when she grew up?

3. What book series was Gay enamored with during her boarding school years?

4. Where was the boarding school Gay attended located?

5. Who comes to stay with Gay during her follow-up surgery in high school?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the boys who raped Gay treat her afterwards?

2. What was the most important thing that Mr. McGuinn did for Gay?

3. Why did the author gain weight so rapidly once she went to boarding school?

4. Why did Gay like the idea of going to boarding school when she was 13?

5. What was Gay's relationship to food like before her rape?

6. Where did Gay's rape take place, and how does she reference the location throughout the rest of the book in how she refers to herself?

7. What are some of the reasons Gay gives explaining why Hunger was a difficult book for her to write?

8. What prompts Gay to drop out of Yale and move across the country?

9. How does Gay describe Haitian attitudes toward gluttony?

10. What advice about writing did Gay’s teacher, Mr. McGuinn, give to Gay?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Growing up in Haitian-American family, Gay felt there were certain expectations and roles she was required to fulfill. Write an essay analyzing how Gay’s cultural background affected her struggles with obesity and loneliness.

Essay Topic 2

Hunger, a memoir, is told entirely from its author’s (first-person) viewpoint. Write an essay analyzing the effect this viewpoint has on the reader in reinforcing the author’s arguments and critiques.

Essay Topic 3

Gay describes her body as a cage “of my own making” and says she has been trying to figure a way out of it for 20 years (19). Write an essay detailing what she means by this and provide examples of how she feels imprisoned or limited by her body.

(see the answer keys)

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