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 did the monster do in the movie?

2. Where is the first memorial Didion visits in Hawaii?

3. What is Didion curious to see at the Pearl Harbor memorial?

4. What was the caretaker's job in the prison?

5. Didion's family refers to her husband as __________________.

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the history of Sacramento.

2. How do the scientists think the Santa Ana winds work to cause psychological changes?

3. Describe Alcatraz Island as depicted in this essay.

4. Describe the accident in the mountains.

5. What does Didion think of the old Hollywood?

6. What is the theme of this essay?

7. Summarize the book.

8. Describe Didion's upbringing in Sacramento.

9. How do the Los Angeles citizens know when the Santa Ana winds are about to blow?

10. What does Didion think of Newport Beach?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Using only the essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem, write Joan Didion's biography.

Essay Topic 2

Write a critical essay about one of the following statements:

1) John Wayne was a force of nature, a man who could beat cancer and return to his life as if nothing had happened.

2) The free-thinking, 1960s California created an environment where a person like Joan Baez could thrive.

3) Michael Laski is a young man with warped ideals who hides in a group of radicals rather than take a chance to be who he is.

Essay Topic 3

What was the Donner party? Why was what they did seen as immoral? Do you think the two situations Didion presents on the morality are comparable? Why does she draw the comparison?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 734 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample