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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 does Strane describe the girl accusing him on page 306?

2. What does Plough want Vanessa to do after graduation?

3. According to Vanessa on page 263, what was Strane’s misfortune?

4. In which of Professor Plough’s classes is Vanessa enrolled?

5. What does Vanessa name the dog she adopts at the end of the novel?

Short Essay Questions

1. What package does Vanessa receive in the mail following Strane’s death? What effect does this package have on her?

2. Why does Vanessa feel a need to see Strane, as explained on page 267? What does she get from it? How is this adoration function like a drug?

3. What does Vanessa learn from Jenny in the spring of 2002?

4. How does Vanessa rationalize Strane’s actions on page 260?

5. How does Strane describe the student accusing him of assault on page 306?

6. Who is Craig, and how does Vanessa meet him? What happens between them?

7. Why does Vanessa judge Henry Plough to be untrustworthy?

8. Why does Strane send Vanessa a packet of documents? Of what is he trying to remind her, as he explains on page 327? What does he want to achieve?

9. How is Vanessa’s mother haunted by the past, as revealed by Jan Wye on page 363?

10. What is Vanessa’s opinion of her teenage self? How does Ruby see a teenage Vanessa, as she explains on page 265?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Write an essay defining victimhood from the perspective of Vanessa. What does it mean to be a victim, according to Vanessa? How do the choices she makes reflect these values?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Vanessa’s journey toward healing and recovery. How does it ebb and flow? How does she make progress and fall behind? What does this say about an individual’s path to recovery?

(see the answer keys)

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