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 does Sarah tell Bethie in Part III about her opinion of Bethie?

2. What does Dave call Jo as a term of endearment?

3. What had Bethie seen Jo and Shelley doing at the University of Michigan?

4. What does Jo think Bethie has a certain genius for?

5. Why does Shelley say she cannot be with Jo in Part III?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kinds of difficulties does Jo experience with her youngest daughter Lila?

2. In Part III, how does Sarah act towards Bethie?

3. What do many of Jo's neighbors say during Bethie's consciousness-raising exercise about their lives in Part IV?

4. What is Bethie's impression of Jo's state of mind when she visits her in Connecticut?

5. What is Bethie's opinion of Jo's husband Dave?

6. In Part III, how does Bethie make a living?

7. What kind of conversation does Bethie do with Jo and her neighbors in Part IV?

8. Why does Jo eventually relent and decide to marry Dave Braverman?

9. Why does Jo go to Shelley's wedding in Part III?

10. How does Jo remember the night Shelley came to find her in 1976?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sarah Kaufman views Bethie as her "good" girl, and she holds high hopes for Bethie's eventual marriage; Sarah seems to see her other daughter Jo as a lost cause and even goes so far as to call her "unnatural." But by Part III, when Jo is married with children and Bethie is drifting around the country and the world, the sisters have switched places in their mother's eyes. Write an essay exploring how Bethie's and Jo's relationships with Sarah change over the course of the novel, citing specific references to the text to help support your answers.

Essay Topic 2

How does the blow-up between Jo and Sarah at Thanksgiving in Part II fundamentally change the dynamic in their relationship? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to support your arguments.

Essay Topic 3

In Part III, how do Bethie's rape and subsequent abortion affect her views of men and of women's oppression? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your arguments.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 772 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample