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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. Who is Fortnoy?

2. How are the children feeling when the novel begins?

3. In the prologue, where is the children's mother?

4. How does Edmund get home with the food for himself and his sister?

5. When they investigate the room that faces Edmund's room, what do Edmund and Dupin find?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the locked-room mystery engage the reader?

2. What is the significance of the fact that both Edmund and Dupin have an important person in their lives whom they call Sis?

3. How do you think the character Dupin reflects the real-life Poe?

4. Why do you think the author decided to set up a mystery in the style of Edgar Allan Poe?

5. When Edmund sees Dupin asleep, surrounded by empty liquor bottles, in Chapter Three, what conflict does it bring about it Edmund's thinking?

6. Why do you think the author has Dupin tell Edmund that he has certain critical information, but refuses to share it with him?

7. What did Edgar Allan Poe do in his mystery stories that no one had done before, and how does this impact future mystery writers?

8. How does the setting reflect Edmund's emotional state?

9. Why do you think Edmund continues to trust Dupin, even after reading in Dupin's notebook in Chapter Nine that Dupin thinks his story should end with Sis' death?

10. Why do you think the author sets up the prologue so that all of Edmund's female family members are missing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the symbolism of Poe's use of a pseudonym? What is the significance of the specific pseudonym he chooses? What are some other examples of his assuming a false identify, and what do these say about his character?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 13, Poe states that the evil in his writings symbolizes human fears. Having read this novel as well as works by Poe, do you agree? What do you think is the connection between evil and fear? What does Poe's connecting the two concepts tell us about his character?

Essay Topic 3

Do you think Edmund should have continued to trust Dupin, even though he kept letting him down? Or should he have taken matters into his own hands sooner? Do you think trusting Dupin is a choice or a necessity?

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This section contains 909 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample