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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 Maria borrow from the stuntman ten days before the film is done in the desert?

2. Whom does Maria want to talk to the night she sleeps with a bottle of gin by her bed because the pain medication isn't working?

3. What does Benny Austin tell Maria about her mother's health the last time she ever saw her?

4. Who acts as Maria's witness at Maria and Carter's divorce hearing?

5. In Maria's dreams of a shadowy syndicate, what does her contact want her to supply information about?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do Carter and Helene assume that Maria had something to do with BZ's death and what are the consequences?

2. How does BZ respond to Maria's pleas that he stop hitting Helene the night after she blacks out?

3. What does Maria drop off at the doctor and why?

4. What does the hypnotist Maria sees tell her about her problems and how does she react?

5. Why does Maria move out of her house in Beverly Hills to an apartment and what does it signify?

6. What fantasy does Maria have about Les and Kate and what does she realize about it?

7. What is significant about Maria's meeting with Les Goodwin the day of her abortion?

8. How does Maria prepare to meet Les in a hotel room and what happens when he arrives?

9. What does Maria remember about meeting BZ for the first time and what does it foreshadow?

10. When Ivan Costello returns Maria's phone call, how does he behave and what does it signify?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the importance of Maria's dreams in the novel. Choose 2 dreams and analyze their significance.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the relationship between mothers and daughters in the novel.

1. What is the nature of Maria and Kate's relationship?

2. What is the nature of Maria and her mother's relationship?

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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