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

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Flan characterize the request he makes his children in this section?

2. Who did Paul claim his prostitute was the night he stayed at Kitty and Larkin's?

3. Which chic New York eatery does Paul "treat" Rick to in this section?

4. Where does Paul proposition Rick for sex?

5. To what literary character does Ouisa compare Trent Conway in this section?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ouisa Kittredge emerges as the protagonist of the play by the end. Write an essay analyzing the plot of Guare's play as a personal journey for Ouisa. What does she discover in her evening with Paul? Why is she so driven to find out his origins and where he is, and how does this drive bring her to promise extravagant things to him over the phone? What is Ouisa's state of mind at the end of the play?

Essay Topic 2

Paul is an enigmatic figure, and he only becomes more enigmatic as more is revealed about him. Write an essay, charting the transformation of Paul in three parts:

Part 1) How does Paul begin his transformation from street hustler to society man? What does Trent have to show him to transform him into the young man who appears in the Kittredges' house?

Part 2) How does Paul reinvent his life when he meets Rick and Elizabeth in Central Park? Who does he become, and how does he take on the manor-born customs of a Trent Conway to do it?

Part 3) In what state of existence is Paul the last time Ouisa speaks to him? Does he have a distinct persona at this point? How is he different from the Paul first introduced to the audience at the beginning of the play?

Essay Topic 3

The idea of the imagination resonates strongly throughout he play, beginning of course with Paul's "thesis" in the first passages. Write an essay on Guare's understanding of imagination in three parts:

Part 1) Compare Paul's conception of the purpose of imagination in his thesis with what he perceives to be society's new definition of imagination. How are they different? Why does Paul consider the latter reductive?

Paul 2) How doe Ouisa, Flan and Geoffrey react to Paul's thesis on imagination? When Paul appears in Ouisa's imagination later in the play, how does he amend his notion of imagination?

Paul 3) How is what Paul actually does to the families of the play the opposite of his sense of imagination? Is he chipping away at his own personality living in a state of constant deception?

(see the answer keys)

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