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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 'medication' does Maureen get from Martha in Section 4?

2. Who takes the bakke in Section 3?

3. What does Maureen notice about the value of money to the villagers?

4. On what do the Smalls become intoxicated?

5. What makes the children happy, as nothing can?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is July so humiliated that Maureen doesn’t like him having the car keys?

2. What does July learn to do in Section 4, and who teaches him?

3. What does Maureen mean when she says “death is a purchase” (pg 65)?

4. Explain what Maureen discovers as she notices various gadgets being used around the village.

5. What does Martha mean in Section 2 when she says she was surprised at the way Maureen looked?

6. What was the relationship between July’s “town woman” and July? What was the relationship between July's town woman and Maureen?

7. What does the author mean by “a contempt and humiliation that came from their blood and his” (pg 62)?

8. Explain Maureen’s reaction to meeting Martha and July’s mother in Section 2.

9. Describe the shooting of the warthog, and the resulting meal for the Smalls.

10. Describe the photograph of young Maureen and her housekeeper Lydia, and why it is important.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the characters of Ellen and Martha. How are they similar and how are they different? What do they each mean, or represent, to July, and how does this show his convoluted situation? What does this say about July as a person? About Ellen? About Martha?

Essay Topic 2

Maureen at one point in the novel mentions being afraid of July, not in a physical sense, but in the sense that she realizes her “consideration” for him became “humiliation” to him. What does this mean? How did Maureen’s treatment of him humiliate him now that they are in his world? What does this say about the whole of Maureen’s life previously? Why does this frighten her?

Essay Topic 3

The photograph of Maureen and Lydia is a focal point for Maureen in the novel. Explain what that photograph would mean in apartheid South Africa. Why was this so important for Maureen as an adult? What did the photograph imply, to her, as she noted her ignorance? Do you think she has changed? How?

(see the answer keys)

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