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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. According to Helene, who are the people BZ's mother Carlotta "can't bear"?

2. According to Carter, who besides him, Maria, and the possible father, does NOT know about the affair?

3. Why is the volume of the movie that man watches in the next room where Maria has her abortion turned up?

4. Why does Maria tell BZ that Larry Kulik is going to die in a barber chair?

5. What is the name of the street where the doctor Maria went to see about the pregnancy practices?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Maria thinks of the men that she has been intimate in her life, what conclusion does she come to and how is it important to the novel?

2. What is the coral snake Maria thinks about as the novel opens a metaphor of?

3. Who is Benny Austin and what does he represent in the novel?

4. How does Maria's mother die and why is it significant?

5. Where did Maria grow up and why is it significant?

6. What does Maria do the first month after she and Carter break up and what does it signify?

7. As the novel opens, where is Maria Wyeth and why is it significant?

8. What does Maria do when she moves to New York and why is it significant?

9. What kind of arrangements does Maria have to make in order to terminate her pregnancy at this time?

10. When Maria asks if Carter and she are separated when he returns home, how does he respond and why is it significant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss games as a motif in the novel.

1. What does the title "Play It as It Lays" signify?

2. What is the significance of gambling for Maria?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the importance of rituals in the novel.

1. What rituals does Maria enact and why?

2. What is the relationship between ritual and superstition?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss mental illness as a theme in the novel.

1. How is treatment of mental illness represented in the novel?

2. What is Maria's familial history with mental illness?

(see the answer keys)

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