View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Gigi searching for when she arrives in Ruby?

2. Why does Mavis begin walking instead of driving the Cadillac?

3. What were the names of Soane and Deek's sons?

4. While the issue of Arnette's pregnancy is being worked out, what woman is K.D. most fascinated with?

5. What does Sweetie believe she hears during the night?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Mavis' twins die, according to the story Mavis tells the reporter?

2. What is immediately noticeable about Gigi?

3. Why do some of the residents leave Haven to found the town of Ruby?

4. What is one of the things the Morgan twins probably consider when they are trying to decide what to do about Arnette's pregnancy?

5. Why do the men from Ruby go to the Convent?

6. When Gigi accepts a ride from Roger Best, what are her plans at that time?

7. What conditions does Mavis's mother place on Mavis being able to stay at her house?

8. Why is the town of Ruby not a place that attracts travelers?

9. When there is a problem in Ruby who handles it?

10. How does Mavis retrieve her car and get it to the Convent?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe Morrison's or the narrator's use of language in the novel "Paradise". Is the language elevated to the poetic or is it the everyday language of the rural people of Ruby?

Essay Topic 2

The novel does not have a simply linear plot progression. Describe the novel's plot progression and what effect this has on the reader.

Essay Topic 3

Examine the final line of the book. How does the final line of the book relate to the entire preceding novel? How does this conception of paradise help explain the novel's title?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 696 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample