View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What game did Trethewey sometimes play with her friend Dede?

2. What name did Trethewey's father assign her in the short stories he wrote?

3. What was Trethewey's mother's full name?

4. Where is Trethewey's distinctive birthmark?

5. Where did Trethewey's father complete his graduate studies?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the Ku Klux Klan burn a cross in the driveway of Trethewey's grandmother's house in the 1960s?

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

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

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

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

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

7. What pain did Trethewey's grandmother describe long after Gwendolyn had died?

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

9. What was unusual about the plant Trethewey saved after her mother's death?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How and when did Threthewey begin to feel more separated from her mother and her mother's life? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your answers.

Essay Topic 2

How did Trethewey's handling of the revelation that Joel read her diary relate to her later decision to become a professional writer? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your answers.

Essay Topic 3

What happened to the cassette tape Trethewey unexpectedly found after Gwendolyn's murder that contained her mother's voice? How did Trethewey explain her choice to deliberately try to forget some of her memories from growing up? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 666 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample