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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 many pounds has Ellie's best female friend gained in the few years prior to the novel's opening?

2. How many dollars per hour is Julia said to make in her psychiatric practice?

3. On what part of Girl's body does Max find evidence of ligature marks?

4. The narrator states that for Julia, everything "in the past year, every thought and deed, led her back to" (51) what emotion?

5. What action does Alice take once she can reach her entire arm out the window in her new room?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way does Hannah connect the theme of secrecy to the nature of small towns?

2. How does a maple tree figure into Chapter 3 and into the discovery of Girl?

3. What aspect of Max's character does Julia admit to being seduced by at the end of Chapter 11?

4. What is the outcome of Judge Myerson's decision regarding Julia's culpability for Amber's horrific acts?

5. How does the motif of dreams enter the narrative in Chapter 8?

6. Name two things the media is said to have ignored about Julia's situation.

7. From whose perspective is the novel narrated when Chapter 1 opens?

8. What does the piano symbolize within the narrative?

9. Provide an example of Julia feeling rejected by her father in her youth.

10. What is the goal of the press conference held in Pine Valley in Chapter 6?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Hannah's choice to tell the story of Magic Hour using a third person omniscient narrator. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what are Hannah’s intended effects on the reader?

Essay Topic 2

Sensory details are used frequently by Hannah in order to create vivid pictures of each character's progression through the narrative of Magic Hour. Choose three scenes in which sensory details are heavily used and discuss how the sensory details used serve Hannah’s creation of vivid characters to populate the narrative.

Essay Topic 3

Analyze Magic Hour from an Existential perspective. What elements of life does it suggest hold the most meaning and why?

(see the answer keys)

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