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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. Avey recalls that Marion always looked at her parents as if _____________________.

2. What is Avey doing at the beginning of Chapter 1?

3. What startles Avey awake?

4. Which of the following does Avey think that her family lost?

5. What does Rosalie do for Avey after she bathes her?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe how Avey has now integrated all the parts of her life into an authentic whole person.

2. What does Lebert regard Avey as and how does he convince her to go to the island with him?

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

4. What is the sermon that Avey recalls hearing as a little girl?

5. What does Avey sense as she awakens in the hotel room after her night of being emotionally exhausted?

6. What is revealed about the women on the boat by the way they care for Avey?

7. 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?

8. In what ways is Avey's meltdown at the hotel a clearing of the path for her spiritually?

9. What was occurring during all those years that Avey was living in denial about her true self?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain the significance of the book's title. What did the author mean by calling the novel Praisesong for the Widow? What other title could you suggest? State a reason to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Praisesong for the Widow is set in the 1970s during the time of the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement in America. What impact does this factor have on the author? What impact does this factor have on any of the other characters? Explain.

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