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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. How can Rosalie and Lebert tell which tribe Avey belongs to?

2. With which daughter does Avey recall spending Christmas one year?

3. What does Avey call her now empty mind?

4. What is Avey's deep-seated pain?

5. Avey wonders if Jay had really died on the night of their big fight and ____________ had been masquerading in his body all those years since.

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Avey's experience at the Beg Pardon.

2. What did the preacher say was the purpose of the sermon about the risen Christ?

3. Describe how Avey's massage becomes almost like a sacred ritual in renewing her in body and spirit.

4. Describe Avey's behavior on the beach.

5. How does Lebert Joseph become Avey's guide, in a sense, to her reclaiming her life?

6. Avey now longs for her husband "Jay" who "died" when Jerome came to the forefront and made them an affluent family. To what holiday situation does Avey compare this longing?

7. Who is Rosalie Parvay and how does Avey meet her?

8. What does Avey feel her family exchanged for its affluence?

9. What does Avey mean when she says that her life is a tabula rasa?

10. How does Avey compare this boat trip, and the old women sitting beside her, to her childhood days in church?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why did Marshall choose to use the omniscient narrator perspective for the novel? What does this point of view entail? What do you know about the characters and the plot line that you would not know from a different point of view?

Essay Topic 2

Explain the role of religion and spirituality in Avey's life. What had it meant to her as a child? How were the religion lessons with her father different from the spiritual lessons with Great Aunt Cuney? Why were each of them important to Avey's development? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Describe the overall setting for the novel. Why does Marshall use the setting she does? What is the time period of the story? How important is the time period to the attitudes and issues of the characters?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,267 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample