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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. Why is Caroline confused on her walk to her old house?

2. What fact does the reader learn about Caroline toward the end of Part Six?

3. On page 200, Caroline quotes Emerson saying, "The way of life is wonderful." What is the next line of this quote?

4. What does Caroline fear might be true about her sister, in Part Seven?

5. When they get to the bus station, what does Father tell Caroline to buy?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Melody, and why does Caroline leave her a note?

2. What education has Caroline received since returning to Oregon?

3. When Paul falls from the sled and Caroline comes up the hill to find him, what does she see, and what does Susan tell her is happening?

4. What does the reader learn has happened to one of Caroline's toes?

5. What natural feature do Caroline and Father stumble across, and how does it save them?

6. What features of Paul's does Caroline notice and find unusual?

7. When Caroline is finally alone in the cave, watching the fire, what does she finally allow herself to think about?

8. What does Father tell Caroline about traveling south, and what actually happens when they go south?

9. Why does Caroline feel that Father is both missing and not missing?

10. How does Caroline retain part of her wild nature in Part Eight?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Some readers have been disappointed by the book's ending. They would rather see Caroline reunite with her family in the end of the book and live a "normal" life. Write an essay in which you explore how this would impact the book's meaning and use textual evidence to defend a position about whether Peter Rock's ending is or is not successful.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the rhetorical purpose and significance of the word definitions that are included in My Abandonment. Use textual evidence, including quoted material, to support your ideas.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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