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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 is interesting about the giant creature in Naomi's dream?

2. Which of the following characters is NOT held in a SIck Bay?

3. When Obasan awakens Naomi in the middle of the night, where does she take her?

4. On what day does Aunt Emily write her first letter to Naomi's mother about the state of racism in Canada?

5. How does Naomi feel about her Aunt's revolutionary thinking?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are ghost towns, as they pertain to the novel?

2. What does Naomi know about the people that made up her community in Slocan?

3. What improvements does Uncle make during the time that he spends in Slocan?

4. What reaction does Naomi have to the newspaper clippings and letters that she finds of Aunt Emily's?

5. After Germany surrenders in the war, what changes about life in Slocan?

6. How does the neighborhood say goodbye to the Nakane family when they are relocated from Slocan?

7. When Naomi opens the package from Aunt Emily, what do Aunt Emily's notes say?

8. What are Sick Bays?

9. What happens to Grandmother Nakane's body after the funeral?

10. What does the young mother tell Obasan about the delivery of her young baby and how they ended up on the relocation train?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Memory proves to be the most powerful tool used to tell Naomi's story. Describe the ways that Kogawa uses memory to trigger plot in the novel, and discuss the various ways that memory is used to broaden the relationship that the reader feels toward Naomi as the novel progresses.

Essay Topic 2

Naomi has a very strenuous relationship with her mother throughout the course of the novel. Create a timeline of Naomi's life in regards to her relationship with her mother. At what times did Naomi feel closest to her mother? At what times did she seem furthest away? What triggers were in place to prompt the changes that Naomi felt toward her mother?

Essay Topic 3

While the children are growing up, Stephen says to Naomi that being Japanese made them "both the enemy and not the enemy." What did this quote mean to Naomi at the time of her childhood, and what does it mean to her now as an adult? How does a double-identity play into Naomi's character throughout her life?

(see the answer keys)

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