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 sport does Brian Morris play?

2. How does Mrs. Shilling respond when Mary Nell Fickett tries to tell her that Lisa Shilling has a mental illness that needs treatment?

3. While Mary Nell Fickett talks to Mrs. Shilling about Lisa Shilling, Betsy Goodman talks to whom?

4. Whom does the narrator describe as being enthusiastic but not very practical?

5. Betsy Goodman asks Jeremy Bernstein about Lisa Shilling's mental illness. Bernstein responds by...

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is the narrator in chapter one?

2. Mental illness aside, how typical are the four main protagonists of the novel?

3. Why do Mr. and Mrs. Shilling ignore their daughter's repeated assertions that she is mentally ill?

4. Why is chapter one presented in italic type face?

5. Why is Betsy Goodman the youngest of the major protagonists?

6. What kind of a job does Mr. Jackson do as the school principal?

7. Describe the chronology of the four main characters' friendships (in other words, who is friends with whom first).

8. Why does Lisa Shilling believe that she is suffering form mental illness?

9. Describe the family situation of the four main characters.

10. What kind of a job does Mr. Goodman do as an insurance salesman?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the family dynamics of the Shilling family. What do the parents spend their time doing? What do the children spend their time doing? Who talks to whom? Also, who doesn't communicate?

Essay Topic 2

When the novel was first published it was quite up to date and contemporaneous. For today, however, the novel has many elements that appear dated. List elements in the novel that made you think you were reading a dated novel, and explain why. Use examples from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Elizabeth Frazer was diagnosed with an unspecified but severe mental illness at about age twelve or thirteen. She spent four years committed in an asylum under the care of Dr. Neil Donovan. She then moves to the town of the novel's primary setting and lives there for about a year or perhaps two. Immediately, she is noticed by Lisa Shilling who feels some type of affinity for her because they both somehow share the bond of mental illness. Discuss this strange attraction. Is it credible? How might it arise? Why does Elizabeth not run away from Lisa as representative of a past she herself has struggled with?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,141 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample