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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 Mawdo, Aissatou's husband, admire about his father-in-law?

2. What did the deceased give Lady Mother-in-Law when he desires to marry Binetou?

3. How does Aissatou respond to Mawdo's taking a second wife under pressure from his mother?

4. What is remarkable about the narrator?

5. How many years has the second wife been married to the deceased?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator think of those who go to school instead of learning traditional crafts?

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

3. Discuss the ritual of taking down the hair.

4. How does the narrator feel about the problems with Aissatou?

5. How does the narrator learn of Modou's new wife and what is she told?

6. How does the family feel about Ibrahima?

7. What is happening to the narrator's daughter, Aissitou, who is named for the narrator's best friend in the United States.

8. Why does Modou go to France?

9. What is the first of Modou's secrets that is revealed?

10. What does the narrator write in her diary as a young woman and remembers in this chapter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Marriage has changed dramatically in the United States even in the last fifty years. Research as to how marriage has changed in the United States. Do you think marriage will eventually be a thing of the past? Is marriage important for the stability of a culture? How would the culture of the United States change if there was no such thing as legal marriage? How would this impact the well being of children? Are there advantages to not having the institution of marriage?

Essay Topic 2

Women have little economic or political power in Senegal at the time this book is set in the 1950-1960s. Research how if at all, Senegal has changed since the time of the setting of this book in terms of the equality between men and women. Would you want to live in a culture as that of Senegal of that time? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Forgiveness. Many people think of forgiveness as an individual act of one person forgiving someone else, as in the story when Ramatoulaye forgives first her husband for deserting her and then her daughter, Aissatou for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. This is one type of forgiveness, but let's look at forgiveness on a grander scale. Research and write an essay on how Germany was treated at the end of WWI versus the end of WWII--what were the differences?

How did the harsh treatment of Germany after WWI contribute to WWII happening, if it did--would Germany have become a different country if it had been treated with forgiveness after WWI?

Do you think that the fact that Germany, Italy, and Japan are successful nations today has to do with the forgiveness offered them after WWII--discuss whether nations be forgiven aggression after they are defeated and how much reparations should be exacted.

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