View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Augusten compare as a student to Natalie?

2. Where does Deirdre's new girlfriend get most of her money?

3. Which character suffers from Alzheimer's and is admitted into a home?

4. Who believes that Freud, the family cat, is speaking through dreams?

5. Whose idea is it for Augusten to go searching for a part-time job?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Augusten do after he realizes that Neil Bookman has disappeared?

2. Who is Cesar Mendoza and what does he look like?

3. What does Natalie inform Augusten of while they are whale watching, and how does she prove her point?

4. Why do the Finch family still have a Christmas tree in May?

5. What happens to the rest of the Finch family in the epilogue?

6. What significant event happens during Natalie and Augusten's first live performance at the mental health hospital?

7. What happens when Brenda comes to visit the Finch family?

8. What does Augusten realize about the places that he has lived in relationship to his hopes and dreams for the future?

9. What happens when Augusten and Natalie go into the city to search for part-time jobs?

10. What messages does Hope claim to be receiving from the cat through her dreams?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Another theme that is very prevalent in the memoir is one of normalcy versus absurdity. Explain what Augusten thought was normal, and give an example of a time that he strove to be normal, fighting against his absurd surroundings. What was the outcome of Augusten's fight for normalcy in that situation?

Essay Topic 2

The story is ultimately Augusten Burroughs' account of his childhood. Compare / contrast the boy that Augusten is in the beginning of the novel with the man that he is in the end and give one example of a scene that irrevocably changed the course of Augusten Burroughs' life.

Essay Topic 3

Unrequited love becomes a large theme throughout the novel.

Part 1.) Create a list of examples of unrequited love throughout the memoir.

Part 2.) Compare / contrast the unrequited love between Deirdre and Dr. Finch with the unrequited love between Neil Bookman and Augusten.

Part 3.) Explain the effect that unrequited love had on Augusten after the incident with the convenience store clerk in Amherst.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 843 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample