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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 words do Shannon feel are the most worn-out words in any script?

2. What is the one thing about Brandy Alexander that surgeons cannot change?

3. Why is the group going to Seattle?

4. What word does the realtor use that briefly puts Brandy and the others into a panic?

5. What year is Miss Rona's autobiography copyrighted?

Short Essay Questions

1. What device does the author employ again and again to convey Shannon's emotions?

2. Why does Manus have pornography magazines around his apartment?

3. What subject is Evie most interested in during the pretend dramas she enacts with Shannon at the department store?

4. What is the one thing Shannon has wanted to be asked?

5. What is Shannon's father's strategy for selling his pigs at market?

6. What article of clothing does Brandy suggest Shannon wear?

7. What accident does Shane have when he was fifteen?

8. Why does Brandy introduce Shannon to veils?

9. What happens on the day that Shannon's bandages are removed when she visits the grocery store?

10. Describe briefly the opening scene of the novel.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A central image of Shannon's childhood is her clothes burning on the clothesline. How does this event change Shannon? How does Shannon react? How does her reaction give insight to her character at fifteen? Is this the start of her obsession with fire? Why or why not? Be sure to examine the account in the novel and cite any quotations.

Essay Topic 2

In the novel the author makes use of different devices to tell the story. In Shannon's case, many of her feelings are related using the Phantom Photographer, a mechanism that allows the reader to know how she is feeling indirectly. What are the implications of this Phantom Photographer? Why doesn't Shannon simply tell the reader herself what she is feeling? How does viewing her state of mind through a photographer provide insight to her former life as a model as well as her inner self?

Essay Topic 3

One of the central themes of the novel is that some people cannot accept themselves. Is this a bad thing in the novel? Are the people who accept themselves missing something in life, as Brandy theorizes? Has Brandy created a problem where one never existed? Be sure to use textual examples and present a well-organized argument.

(see the answer keys)

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