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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 is Kate dressed for dinner?

2. Who does Aunt Emily want to pass the family heritage on to?

3. What does Kate feel about the request?

4. Why does Kate think marriage is a bad idea?

5. How does john feel when he leaves his aunt's house?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does John feel about his family at the end of the book?

2. What ruins the trip?

3. Why does John think everyone is dead?

4. What is interesting about the marriage?

5. Why is Kate so angry with John?

6. How does John treat Kate?

7. What does Kate think the worst that can happen to John is?

8. Why does Kate want to go to Chicago with John?

9. How does the novel end?

10. How does the epilogue begin?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Everyone in the book is very nervous that John will "end up like his father." What are some qualities that John's family members do not want him to inherit from his father?

How could Aunt Emily have made John' life choice easier? Could she have supported his search but also asked him to take more responsibility for his life?

Essay Topic 2

While the women in John's life obviously make demands of him, the men seem to impose little on John. What is the deeper connection between John and the following characters:

- Lonnie

- John's father

- Harold

Essay Topic 3

Kate and Aunt Emily are two matriarchal figures in John's life that pressure him to make different decisions.

1. Although Kate thinks she is very different than Aunt Emily, how are the characters the same? Why do they control so much of John's thoughts?

2. Explain why Kate is Aunt Emily's foil in the novel.

3. What life choices does Kate pressure John to make? How is her pressuring any different than the high standards that Aunt Emily has for John?

(see the answer keys)

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