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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 word is used to describe Salvatore's body after marrying?

2. What does Salvatore tell his mother about Assunta?

3. What would Salvatore do when his rheumatism made it impossible for him to work?

4. Whom did Assunta have "nothing but harsh words for" (7)?

5. What simile is used to describe Salvatore's hands when he is not bathing his children?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Salvatore washing his babies near the end of the story?

2. What would Salvatore do if his rheumatism became too bad for him to work?

3. Why does Salvatore understand that the girl he loves will not marry him?

4. How is Assunta described after she and Salvatore marry? What does she look like? What type of person is she?

5. How did Salvatore's family learn he was not going to marry the girl he loved?

6. What happened to Assunta's fiancé?

7. What did Salvatore do for work after he and Assunta married?

8. Though Salvatore found Assunta physically unattractive, what could she offer him if they married?

9. What did Salvatore's fiancé tell him "with the blunt directness of her race" (5) when he went to see her at her home after he returned rom military service?

10. What does the narrator say he set out to do in the story?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What conflicts exist in "Salvatore"? How does conflict develop the themes of goodness, longing, and love?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay describing the narrator's view of Salvatore. Use direct examples from the text to show what the narrator thinks of Salvatore.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay exploring the significance of gender in "Salvatore." How does gender influence behavior in the story?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 565 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample