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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. Who is the main female character?

2. What is Mother's description of what Father is doing regarding the family house and barn?

3. What does the protagonist NOT defy?

4. From the introduction, what does the reader know about how the secondary characters are going to be affected?

5. After Father goes back into the field to work following their discussion about the state of the house and barn, what does Mother do?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Father's attitude as he gives Mother the instructions before he leaves on his trip.

2. Describe Mother's reaction to Nanny's suggestion and what Mother does at the end of this conversation with Nanny in Section 2.

3. What is the scene as Mother asks Sammy about his knowledge of plans for the new barn? Explain what Sammy knows.

4. What does Mother do following Father's return home to let him know that this is how things are going to be from now on?

5. What does Mother say to Sammy and Nanny after the hay cart arrives and she is back in the house?

6. After Father's conversation with Sammy about Mother, what occurs with regard to the barn and Father's plans for it?

7. Why does Mother think she has a right to be disturbed about Father's building another barn?

8. What happens at the end of the story to let the reader know the conclusion?

9. When Nanny arrives home from her trip to the store, what does she tell her mother about the house? What suggestion does she make?

10. Describe Nanny's reaction to her Mother's news about the location of the digging.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about tone used in the story as Mother is characterized. Mother is portrayed using sarcasm, anger, and submission. Does the author do an adequate job of developing these different tones of Mother's voice? Or does Mother appear to be erratic as she moves from one attitude to another so many times throughout the story?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay explaining if you think this story was meant to be controversial for the time in which it was written. Use the time in which the author was writing as compared to the time during which the story takes place to support your answers.

Essay Topic 3

Explain the view of a woman's role during the 1800s. Be sure to discuss how men treated women and how men viewed women. Also include a discussion of how women were to treat men during this time in history. Then explain why this understanding of history is crucial to understanding the interactions between the members of the Penn family.

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