View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Skip keep in his pocket in "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles"?

2. Why does Walter Davis feel his perspective on war has changed in "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles"?

3. What does Nancy tell Joan is important to a man at the end of "Pretty Nancy"?

4. What is the first speaker at the meeting Didion covers in "Getting Serenity" addicted to?

5. According to Didion in "A Trip to Xanadu," in what year did San Simeon become a state monument?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened when Joan wrote a paper for one of her friends at Stanford? What was the paper about? What grade did he get? What grade did she get?

2. What do the tour guides in "A Trip to Xandadu" say about Hearsts sons?

3. What does Nancy Reagan show Joan at the State Capital and what does she say about it?

4. What is Joan doing at Nancy Reagan's home in "Pretty Nancy" and who else is there and why?

5. What part of the meeting in "Getting Serenity does Didion find most unsettling and why?

6. Why does Didion say that the so-called underground papers she discusses in "Alicia" are not really underground?

7. What does Didion say about objectivity in "Alicia and the Underground Press"?

8. Describe Nancy Reagan's interaction with her son at the end of "Pretty Nancy"?

9. Where is Joan Didion in her essay "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles" (38)?

10. What example does Joan use to express how much more difficult things have gotten regarding parents trying to ensure their children get into their college of choice?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing Didion's commentary on the Vietnam War in "Fathers, Sons, and Screaming Eagles." How is this war different from World War II, which Skip and Walt fought in during the 1940s? Do you know what Didion's thoughts are about the war? If so, how?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing Didion's feminist commentary in "Everywoman.com." What aspects of the story come across as particularly feminist? How does this affect the narrative? Use textual evidence to explain your analysis.

Essay Topic 3

Based on her essays in Let Me Tell You What I Mean ,write an analysis of Joan Didion. Consider who she is as a writer, what you know of her backstory, as well as who and what she likes and dislikes. Use textual evidence to support your analysis.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 827 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample