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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What happened to Trethewey when she first set out to start writing about her mother?
(a) She had more dreams about her mother in a few weeks than she had in decades.
(b) She had to take a leave of absence from work.
(c) She had to call her grandmother for comfort.
(d) She talked to her partner about her mother more.

2. Who did Gwendolyn visit a few weeks before she was killed?
(a) An old friend from high school.
(b) A psychic.
(c) Her first husband.
(d) A priest.

3. What kind of disposition did Trethewey have as a child?
(a) Always joyful and joking.
(b) Angry and brooding.
(c) Calm and relaxed.
(d) Superstitious and anxious.

4. WHat was the one reminder of Gwendolyn's father in the house she grew up in?
(a) A photo of him.
(b) One of his hats which always hung on a peg.
(c) An oil painting of him.
(d) A charcoal drawing of him.

5. What moment from Part II did Trethewey recall at her mother's funeral?
(a) A suspicious moment when Trethewey thought Joel was stealing from her mother.
(b) A happy memory of her mother dancing at a party.
(c) A sad memory of her mother fighting with Joel.
(d) An angry memory of when Joel hit Trethewey.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which famous monument was in sight of the apartment Gwendolyn lived in when she was killed?

2. What was the name of the street Gwendolyn lived on when she was killed?

3. Which Supreme Court case ruled that laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional?

4. What years did Trethewey try to forget as much about as she could?

5. What did Trethewey's father always tell her she would become when she grew up?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did it take longer than it might have for Trethewey to realize her father and mother had separated?

2. When and where did Trethewey first encounter racism from other children?

3. What nightmare did Trethewey have shortly after moving to Atlanta?

4. What is one thing Trethewey remembered her mother doing to their apartment in Atlanta to try to make her feel more at home?

5. Why did Trethewey's parents travel to Ohio to elope in 1965?

6. What did Trethewey remember fearing about her drives around Atlanta with Joel?

7. Why did Gwendolyn not see her father after about age 16?

8. What name did Trethewey's father bestow on her in his fiction writing and why is it significant?

9. What was Trethewey's last image of her mother while her mother was living?

10. What question did Trethewey's mother ask her in her dream in Part I?

(see the answer keys)

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