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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 does Howard tell Jean in Chapter 8 that he and Gretchen are not?

2. Who does Jean live with?

3. What is Gretchen's address?

4. What does Alice collect?

5. What was Jean's impression of Chelsea when she was a child?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Jean tell Howard she did for a time in the war?

2. What does Jean keep in a drawer, unused?

3. Where is Jean's sister Dorrie?

4. What do the doctors do to try to prove or disprove Gretchen's story?

5. What is Jean's relationship with her colleagues like?

6. What does Martha give to Jean to give to Gretchen for her?

7. How does Jean first meet Gretchen?

8. What is the newspaper article in Part I about?

9. What does Howard do for a living?

10. Why does everyone refer to Kitty as "Poor Kitty"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Chambers build and maintain suspense throughout this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

What do the initial reactions to Gretchen's claim of having experienced an immaculate conception reveal about the cultural and social conventions of Chambers's setting for this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

How does Chambers treat the topic of guilt related to Jean's conflicted feelings about being her mother's sole caregiver? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

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