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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. Miah reminds Ellie that the only way the racism they encounter as a couple would go away would be when?

2. Why does Ellie finally call her mother, "Ma"?

3. Jeremiah and Ellie have a deep conversation about showing what?

4. Of what does Ellie remind her mother regarding the holiday?

5. What does Miah's father think when Miah says he sometimes thinks he hears his grandmother whispering in his ear that she is good where she is?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Miah's father say happened to his relationship with Nelia?

2. Why had Miah not told Ellie about his famous parents earlier in their relationship?

3. On the drive to East Hampton, what does Miah's father have to say about white people?

4. How does Ellie feel when she finds Jeremiah in the hallway?

5. How does Miah get out of having to spend time with his father's friends?

6. What are the memories Miah has of the library on Fifth Avenue?

7. How does Ellie resond to Miah's request she come for dinner after practice?

8. How does Miah's father respond when Miah tells him he spends his weekends in Manhattan with his Percy friends?

9. What do both Miah and his father say about the afterlife?

10. What realization does Miah come to regarding his father, when he enters his father's home in this section (Chapters 11-15)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Racism permeates the entire story and its characters. How is systemic racism a theme or central idea of If You Come Softly? How are many of the characters affected by it? How does it lead to the tragic ending of this story? What is the message the reader is to get regarding systemic racism?

Essay Topic 2

Early in the story Miah says he does not fit in, as he is Black but worldly. How does the story reveal that Miah’s father is in much the same way an outsider? What other characters do not fit the typical mold? How does this affect them? How do they deal with this? What is the author’s purpose for creating these unique characters?

Essay Topic 3

How do Jeremiah and Ellie feel about themselves? How do they both see a kindred spirit in the eyes of the other? How does this finding of themselves in the other influence their feelings towards each other, as the story progresses?

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This section contains 965 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample