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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 Aunty Nabou demand?

2. According to the narrator, what did Modou do to gain her as a wife?

3. Who suffers a heart attack?

4. How many children does the woman bear the deceased?

5. Of what is Aunty Nabou proud?

Short Essay Questions

1. How might Aissatou's situation be a bigger problem in Senegal than for a woman with the same situation in the United States. What are the similarities?

2. What is a possible reason the narrator's first name is revealed in chapter 19?

3. Why does Modou go to France?

4. How does the narrator react to Modou's death?

5. What is the goal of the school the narrator attends?

6. Compare and contrast the second marriages of Mawdo and Modou.

7. What evidence is there that racism exists in Senegal? What is the narrator's response to the problem?

8. What is a mirasse?

9. How does the narrator react to the news and what does she think?

10. Discuss the ritual of taking down the hair.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Morality is another concept that seems to be taught and thought about less often now than in the time of So Long A Letter. How has morality changed in the United States since the 1950's? What is considered acceptable now that was considered immoral then? What is still considered immoral now as then? Should morality change? Is the differences between what was considered moral behavior then versus now that significant? Has the United States been negatively impacted by the changing moral climate of the country? Has it been positively impacted? Such areas to consider might be marriage vs. living together; gay relationships; cheating or stealing; parent-child relationships.

Essay Topic 2

Unlike many Senegalese women, the narrator is a working mother, even before her husband left her. Much research has been done on the effect of a two-parent working family on children. What does the research seem to suggest? What are some possible ways to solve the problem of the need for both parents to work outside of the home in the United States? More and more men are becoming stay-at-home fathers while their wives are the primary breadwinners. After researching the dynamics of male/female power structure in Senegal today, do you think this phenomenon is taking place there also? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Ramatoulaye's message at the end of the book is one of hope. Discuss various things that our world is doing to ensure the continuation of a healthy species and earth and how that is hopeful.

In what ways does our species and planet seem to be on a course of destruction and what needs to be done to feel hopeful about the future?

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This section contains 1,063 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample