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

2. How did Salvatore's family learn his fiancé was not going to marry him before he did?

3. What work does Salvatore do when he settles home after returning from military service?

4. Why does Salvatore's fiancé say she can no longer marry him?

5. What did Salvatore tell his mother after he took a good look at Assunta?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

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

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

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

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

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

8. What happened to Assunta's fiancé?

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

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

Discuss Maugham’s focus on the theme of goodness as presented in the story.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about how Salvatore's time in China changes the course of his life.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay exploring time in "Salvatore." What span of time does the story cover? How is the passage of time expressed?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 624 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample