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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. When Caroline asks Valerie if she has seen Father, what does Valerie tell her?

2. What does Caroline say about menstruation?

3. After Clarence tells Father that it was stupid to come back to the park, what does Father tell Caroline?

4. In Part Four, what do Caroline and Father find has happened to their house?

5. What is the only possession of Father's and Caroline's that is left in their old cave house?

Short Essay Questions

1. What elaborate ritual do Caroline and Father have for sharing food in a way that does not alert people that they are together?

2. Why does Caroline leave her encyclopedias behind when she is taken into state custody?

3. At the end of Part Two, what two things does Jean Bauer give to Caroline, and how does she demonstrate that she has been listening to Caroline's complaints about her room?

4. What happens when Mr. Walters tells Father the work he wants him to do on Father's first day of work?

5. When they return to the park, what does Father find in the hollow in the crook of the tree, and what do he and Caroline do with it?

6. The novel opens with Caroline reflecting that "There's nothing to do but keep walking, you have to be ready for everything" (3). What does this comment tell the reader about Caroline's state of mind?

7. What pieces of information does Father give Caroline about her mother in Part One?

8. What does Clarence tell Father when Father and Caroline find the men's camp?

9. What does Valerie say she dislikes about Caroline, and what seems to be the real motivation for her hostility?

10. What does Caroline remember when she is riding in the police car?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Caroline's fantasy about recruiting first her sister Della and later one of the girls from the softball team in Sisters just that--a harmless fantasy--or do you believe that Caroline, like Father, will eventually act on her need to recruit someone else into her solitary lifestyle? Write an essay that uses textual evidence to defend a claim about Caroline's desire to recruit a younger girl into her lifestyle.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that examines the book's messages about family. Caroline was taken from one family by Father in an attempt to build himself a family. While she lives with Father, Caroline meets the Skeleton Family and Susan and Paul. And, by the end of the book, Caroline is thinking ahead to either having children of her own or recruiting a younger girl to recreate the kind of family she had with Father. Consider all of these elements as you make and defend a claim about what My Abandonment is saying about what constitutes family and what the purpose of family is.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that compares and contrasts the attitudes Jean Bauer and Mr. Walters display toward Caroline. Use textual evidence to defend your claims.

(see the answer keys)

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