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. How does the narrator characterize Temple’s mother, Dee?

2. What is it that causes Dee to raise her expectation for Temple’s college plans from community college to University of Virginia?

3. What is the effect of Meg’s discourse, in her feminist encounter group, on the relativity of gender?

4. Where does the narrator say Karen’s “common-sensical, matter-of-fact way of approaching things” comes from (160)?

5. What do Karen and Temple go to Byrdie’s party as?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Meg more afraid than comforted when she meets Diane, whom she identifies as another lesbian?

2. How does Byrdie meet Karen at Thetan House?

3. How do Lomax and Meg skate by when a local cocaine bust does not touch them?

4. How do Byrdie and Mike end up talking with the police after the party?

5. What are the costumes Karen and Temple wear to the Halloween party at Thetan House?

6. What writing advice does Luke give Meg?

7. What kind of awakening does Temple have when he reads Invisible Man?

8. What is the career opportunity that opens up for Meg when Lomax meets the man known as “the Seal” (116)?

9. What are Byrdie’s plans for a major and a career in the beginning of his time at college?

10. How does the narrator characterize the secret society Byrdie joins at the University of Virginia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What topics would you like to research further, after reading Mislaid? Describe why additional research or reading would be beneficial to an understanding of this book. Propose a list of articles or books you would read in order to get a better handle on Mislaid.

Essay Topic 2

Evaluate your own reading of Mislaid—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,077 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample