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. What does Reverend Emmett tell Ian when he calls him to announce that Rita has given birth?

2. Whom does Ian see Gideon leaving school with in Chapter Eight?

3. Where is Cicely living now that Ian is involved in the Church of the Second Chance?

4. Who has to pick up Daphne every day after school when she's sixteen?

5. What kind of work does Eli Everjohn do?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Doug want to keep particular items of Bee's when the children are cleaning out the house?

2. Describe Ian's uneasiness with Daphne and Gideon's relationship.

3. Describe Eli Everjohn.

4. What is the weather in the spring of 1988?

5. What does Daphne hang on the wall in the living room with the other family pictures?

6. Why does Daphne call Ian "Saint Maybe"?

7. What kind of cradle does Ian build in Chapter Ten?

8. What is the significance of Rita's choice of black-eyed peas and rice for Christmas Eve dinner?

9. Why does Agatha ask her siblings "What's happened to Ian?"

10. How does Ian think Daphne reminds him of Lucy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe several instances of the way humor is used in Saint Maybe. Does Anne Tyler use humor effectively? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

What specific details are used to describe Ariana Pennington? What is it about her that makes the children believe she would be a perfect wife for Ian? Why does Ian seem uninterested?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the importance of setting in the novel, particularly the Bedloe's home. How does the interior setting reflect the state of mind of the family? When the house gets messy and in disrepair, what is happening in the Bedloe's lives?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 851 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample