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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 does Katrina tell Francis her poet sees?

2. For whom does Helen light a candle when she goes to church?

3. The narrator says that even as Francis felt rich, he felt what other feeling?

4. What image does Katrina’s poet have of her?

5. What literary term describes the jump back to an earlier time at the beginning of Chapter 6?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Helen say that she and Francis could not marry?

2. How does Helen feel about her life, when she is summing it up as she dies?

3. How do Francis’ kids react to seeing him?

4. What was Francis’ mother’s relationship with Katrina Daugherty like?

5. Explain the meaning of the attention Rosskam draws to Francis’ hands.

6. What does Rosskam tell Francis about his sex life?

7. Why is Helen angry with Francis, when she thinks about him in the hotel?

8. How does Francis characterize the difference between Annie’s kiss and Katrina’s?

9. How did Helen’s father’s death change her life?

10. Describe Annie’s greeting when Francis arrives at her house.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Debate the proposition that Francis has redeemed his flight from home and family by turning flight into a philosophy.

Essay Topic 2

Where is the climax of this book? Are there different climaxes? What questions does each climax resolve? What questions does each climax leave unanswered?

Essay Topic 3

Would you recommend Ironweed? For what purposes would you recommend Ironweed, and what kinds of readers would you recommend it for? What other book would you recommend that would cover the same material or tell the same story in a different way?

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