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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 do Avel and Thor do with the two women in Chapter 4?

2. Where does Harriet say goodbye to Avel in Chapter 8?

3. What does Patty Jane think of Avel when they meet for the first time?

4. What does Avel return with in Chapter 6?

5. Who does Avel give his car keys to in Chapter 2?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the cause of the argument between Patty Jane and Thor in the grocery store?

2. What does Patty Jane announce to Thor on the morning after their wedding? How do people react to the announcement?

3. What do we find out about Nora's father in the prologue?

4. Why were Patty Jane and her sister raised by an aunt? What did the aunt's treatment of the girls spur Patty Jane to do?

5. How does Avel feel about his sisters? Why do Avel's sisters tell him he and Harriet must put off their wedding.

6. In Chapter 3, how does Patty Jane feel about being pregnant?

7. What memory does Nora recall about her mother and a man at a drugstore in the prologue?

8. How does Patty Jane act after Thor's disappearance?

9. Who is at the store when Harriet and Ione go to get cigarettes in Chapter 7?

10. How does Thor show a change during his walk home at dawn in Chapter 6?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the setting of the novel. How important is the setting to a novel? What if the novel had been set in a different place and time? In your opinion, would the choices of main characters be different? If so, how?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze and interpret the conclusion of the novel "Patty Jane's House of Curl." What happens at the end of the novel? Are there any unanswered questions? Why might Landvik have chosen to skip ahead twenty years?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Landvik's use of humor in "Patty Jane's House of Curl." How does Landvik incorporate humor into the novel? What are some examples of humor? What type(s) of humor does she use?

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