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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. How does the painter know Bijou has been faithless?

2. In "the Chanchiquito," why is a witch doctor called in to help the aristocratic lady?

3. Fill in the blank for this quote from "Mandra:" "[Miriam and Paul's] obsession [is] with the word that is the key to society--everything must be "________."

4. According to Mandra, what has Mary never experienced?

5. What happens when Albert tries to have sex with Faye?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jan seduce Laura at the end of this story?

2. How is Hilda forced to deal with her relationship to the American writer?

3. How does the narrator compare her attractiveness to Miriam's appeal?

4. In "A Model," why does the narrator become a model?

5. Describe the contrasts (physical and personality-wise) between Jan and Laura.

6. Describe the scene where the painter decorates Bijou.

7. In what ways is Mary described as being intensely sexual, yet frigid?

8. Why does the painter in "The Queen" claim to like women such as Bijou?

9. Describe some of the narrator's first modeling jobs, including her experienced with the artists in "A Model."

10. Describe Rango.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is sexual repression depicted in this book? How does a sexually repressed childhood (with conflicting messages) affect Dorothy and Edna of "Two Sisters?" Why is Lina repressed, despite her reciprocated attraction to her female friend? What about Maria from "the Maja?" How does this affect her marriage to Novalis and how does it affect his art? What do all of the repressed characters have in common? What changes their outlook on sex by the end of the stories and how does it fundamentally seem to change them?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the characters of Manuel and Rango in the following format:

Part 1) Compare and contrast the two men.

Part 2) Manuel's fetish for innocence.

Part 3) Rango's desire for submission.

Part 4) The two men and their relationship to control.

Part 5) The two men having no control in certain areas (Manuel's wife being the breadwinner and Rango being an alcoholic).

Cite specific examples from the text to support your answers.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the conflicting gender dynamics of these stories in the following format:

Part 1) Virgins and their desire to have a lover.

Part 2) The violence and pushiness of certain men (such as Rango and Pierre).

Part 3) Lina.

Part 4) The characters' abilities to take control of their own sex lives.

Part 5) Pleasure at the expense of others.

Cite specific examples from the text to support your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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