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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. What strikes Vanessa about Strane’s appearance on page 54?

2. What costume does Vanessa wear to the Halloween dance on page 62?

3. Who approaches Vanessa after Christmas break having heard rumors of Vanessa’s affair with Strane?

4. Where do the sophomores take a field trip in the winter of Vanessa’s sophomore year?

5. On page 102, what procedure does Strane reveal he has had performed?

Short Essay Questions

1. What strange gift does Strane give to Vanessa when she first goes to visit him at his house?

2. What happens to Vanessa psychologically during her first kiss with Strane on page 83?

3. What happens at the Halloween dance on page 62?

4. Why does Strane come to see Vanessa on page 54? What does Vanessa experience psychologically on page 56?

5. According to Strane following Vanessa’s conversation with Jenny, what would happen to Vanessa if anyone found out about their affair?

6. What early interactions between Vanessa and Strane suggest that he is grooming her for abuse? What is the effect of these actions on Vanessa?

7. Whose poetry does Strane give Vanessa to read while she is still his student? What is the effect of this poetry on Vanessa?

8. Why does Jenny approach Vanessa in the winter of their sophomore year? How does Vanessa respond?

9. What odd request does Strane make a Vanessa on page 133? How does she respond?

10. What club does Vanessa join? Why? Whom does she meet there?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the author’s choice to tell this story by using the first-person perspective. How does viewing the action through a first-person perspective affect the story? How would the novel change if the story was told through the third person?

Essay Topic 2

The characters in My Dark Vanessa all highlight the idea the past is never truly past. Choose three characters and explain how each illustrates this idea, using textual evidence to support your claims.

Essay Topic 3

While teaching a lesson on Longfellow, Strane remarks that “the world is made of endlessly intersecting stories, each one valid and true” (21). How does the novel support or refute this claim?

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