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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. How does Peggy characterize the poets who come to visit Lee?

2. What does the narrator says that the ruling class is made up of?

3. Why does Meg refuse to work as a waitress?

4. What makes Lee think that the girl he sees in the parking lot is his daughter?

5. Which famous writer’s footsteps does Peggy see herself following in?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Meg pass herself and Karen off as black?

2. How has the history of the integration of schools affected Temple’s family’s education?

3. Why does Lee’s private investigator ultimately give up his search for Peggy?

4. What is Lomax’ background?

5. What does Karen do to raise funds to live on?

6. How does the narrator characterize Karen’s memories of her brother and her life at Lee’s house?

7. How would you explain the humor of Mislaid?

8. How does Zink describe Mireille’s relationship with her father?

9. How well does Karen fare in such a limited, impoverished environment?

10. How does the narrator describe the construction of Stillwater Lake?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To what extent is Mislaid a novel about race? How does race figure in Mislaid, and how do characters like Lee and Peggy engage with the concept of race? Do they change relative to the ideas they start with, or do they change their ideas?

Essay Topic 2

Where is the climax of this book? Are there different climaxes? What questions does each climax resolve? What questions does each climax leave unanswered?

Essay Topic 3

Identify the most important plot points in Mislaid. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 989 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample