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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 Dorcas put on Joe's hands?

2. How does the white men refer to the best hunter?

3. What does Violet's father bring the children when he visits?

4. How much does Joe pay for the bedroom he and Dorcas meet in?

5. What does Joe take with him to the park?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of Dorcas's clothespin dolls in Chapter Three?

2. In Chapter Four, why does True Belle come to Virginia to care for her grandchildren?

3. Why do Joe and Violet fall into such deep debt in Chapter Five?

4. Why is Violet known as "Violent" Trace in town?

5. Describe the series of thoughts in Joe's mind the night he shoots Dorcas in Chapter Five.

6. How does Violet learn more about Dorcas in Chapter One? What does she learn?

7. In Chapter Two, what reason does the narrator give for Joe killing Dorcas?

8. Describe Joe's recollection of the train ride to Maryland in Chapter Two.

9. Describe the death of Dorcas's mother.

10. How does the narrator describe Harlem of the 1920s in Chapter One?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Felice has a strong attachment to the ring Dorcas is buried wearing. What does the ring signify, and why is it so important to Felice? What greater concepts are initiated in the story about the ring?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the significance of Golden Gray in Violet's life. How does it affect her childhood as well as her marriage with Joe?

Essay Topic 3

How do the stories of Dorcas's death differ as they are told by Joe, Dorcas, and Felice? What aspects are the same? How do the differences in perception accentuate the difference between these three characters?

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