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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 does Alex and Cassie's home in Bel-Air look like?

2. What country does Herb Silver place a call to, telling Jane's husband that she has been found?

3. What play does Cassie hear Alex practicing their first night together?

4. What is Alex's response when Jane hugs Will?

5. Why is Will at the restaurant the night that Alex gets into a fight?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss the importance of the movie that Alex is nominated for an award in.

2. What is Cassie's impression of Alex in Chapter Seven?

3. How does Alex react to the visit to the pediatric hospital?

4. What do Cassie's lives in Maine, Tanzania and Malibu illustrate in Chapter Five?

5. What expectations does the Algonquin legend put in place for the novel?

6. How do Cassie and Will's perceptions of Desperado differ and why does this matter?

7. How do Jane and William get to know each other better in Chapter Two?

8. Describe William Flying Horse's experience as a half-Sioux person.

9. Why is Cassie addicted to dime store romances and embarrassed by this?

10. Why does Will buy new furniture in Chapter Eight?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Cassie, Alex and Will have all experienced shame. Compare and contrast the shame, its cause and how it is dealt with among these three characters. Of the three, decide who has dealt with his/her feelings of shame most effectively and why.

Essay Topic 2

The characters of William Flying Horse and Alex Rivers can easily be labeled as the good and bad guys in Picture Perfect. However, Jodi Picoult gives each both good and bad qualities which makes the story a little less black and white in many ways.

1) Do you think that William or Alex had a more difficult childhood? Explain.

2) Why does Alex become an actor while William becomes a police officer? Does this make a statement about actors and police officers in general?

3) Analyze the best qualities of Alex and the worst qualities of William.

Essay Topic 3

Memory and prejudice both play important roles in Picture Perfect.

1) Describe how the author uses prejudice to create feelings about certain characters in the novel.

2) Explain how memory or the lack thereof can help to create or reduce prejudice based on examples in the story.

3) Select a minor character from the novel (Connor, Dorothea, Ophelia...) and explain how memory and prejudice play out in the growth or development of that character and their role in the novel.

(see the answer keys)

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