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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 is Michael's daughter's name?

2. What does Michael discover amongst Hanna's newspaper clippings?

3. How does Michael feel at the end of Part 2, Chapter 16?

4. What does the daughter want Michael to do with the money?

5. What does Michael learn after a phone call at the end of Part 3, Chapter 7?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Michael decide to do for work, and why?

2. What does Michael do to prepare for Hanna's release in Chapter 9?

3. What does Michael notice about himself after he is taken to the hospital with fever?

4. What does Michael do during the summer after the trial, as described in Part 3, Chapter 1?

5. How does Michael feel upon seeing Hanna in Chapter 8, and how does he describe her?

6. Describe Gertrud and the relationship she develops with Michael as described in Chapter 2.

7. In Chapter 17, what is the atmosphere in the courtroom at the beginning of the sentencing?

8. What does Michael say about his relationships after Gertrud?

9. Of Hanna's possessions, what does the daughter decide to keep, and why?

10. In the beginning of Chapter 12, right after Hanna's death, what does Michael decide to do? Why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the novel Michael mentions the images of Hanna that stay with him, like a "mental projector." Give examples of some of the images that Michael mentions, and describe why those images might stay with him. Why might the author include this visual imagery, and what does it symbolize in the context of the relationship between Hanna and Michael?

Essay Topic 2

In Part 1, Chapter 5 Michael says that he recognizes a life pattern in himself, and that "often enough in my life I have done things I had not decided to do." What does Michael mean by this? Describe and give examples of the disconnect Michael feels between making a decision and completing an action. How does this act as a foreshadowing of Michael's later behavior?

Essay Topic 3

How does Hanna act as a "bully" in the early stages of the relationship she has with Michael? Why does Michael feel he has no choice but to give in to Hanna and her demands? How does this set the tone for Hanna's behavior during her trial?

(see the answer keys)

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