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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 was the last image Trethewey had of her mother before Gwendolyn's death?

2. What experience from Mexico did Trethewey always remember with some trepidation afterwards?

3. What state did Trethewey's parents get married in?

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

5. What did Trethewey call the man Gwendolyn brought home for her to meet in Part II?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why did Trethewey's father want to take her and her mother to Mexico in the 1960s?

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

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

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

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

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

9. What did Trethewey begin to notice when she was out as a child with each of her parents?

10. What did Trethewey want more than anything after moving to Atlanta?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How did Trethewey react the first time she heard Joel beating her mother? Who did she confide in, and what happened afterwards? 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

What did Trethewey learn from the pages of her mother's notes that were in Gwendolyn's briefcase at the time of Gwendolyn's death in 1985? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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