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

2. What occasion did Trethewey's birth coincide with?

3. Which of the following images did Trethewey remember seeing the morning after her mother's death?

4. Which family that Trethewey and her family befriended reminded her of the Jackson Five?

5. Where did Trethewey's mother take her at Grant Park as a special treat one weekend?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. What did Trethewey remember most clearly about leaving Mississippi for Atlanta in 1972?

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

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

8. Why did Trethewey's father encourage her to become a writer?

9. What occasion did Trethewey's birth also mark in 1966?

10. What monument was very close to the apartment where Trethewey's mother was killed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why did Trethewey decide not to tell her parents the first time children insulted her because she is mixed race? What connection did Trethewey make between this incident and her path to becoming a writer? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 2

What do the few objects Trethewey kept after her mother's death - the belt made of bullets, the dieffenbachia plant, and a few books - say about her relationship with and feelings about her mother? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay exploring how and when Trethewey became aware of her status and difficulties as a mixed-race child in the American South in the 1960s and 1970s, citing specific references to the text to help support your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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