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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. Who did Modou support politically?

2. What does Aunty Nabou demand?

3. What field is Modou's degree?

4. How might one describe the culture of the Senegal people?

5. Of what does the younger generation speak?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the narrator rush to the hospital and what does she find?

2. What is the response that many of those around Ramatoulaye have to the offer of marriage by Daouda and why?

3. How does Aissatou respond to Mawdo accepting a second wife from his mother?

4. How does Mawdo's mother take revenge agains Aissatou?

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

6. What does Modou do upon returning from France?

7. Describe the narrator's living situation.

8. How do the narrator and her friends make their lives better?

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

10. What are some things Daouda does when he visits the narrator that implies his future offer of marriage?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ramatoulaye is upset when she catches her daughters smoking but seems more upset because it is a Western habit than because of health issues.

Should all types of substances be strictly regulated by the government that have been shown throughout history to have a deleterious effect on an individual's health or society's well-being? Consider such substances as tobacco (cigarettes, pipe, cigar, snuff), alcohol, and drugs (all non-legal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, crack, meth, etc.). Explain your response with examples and details.

Does the government have an obligation to protect the individual from poor choices such as the use of cigarettes, alcohol and street drugs--or is their interference a violation of the rights outlined in the constitution? Thoroughly support your response with examples.

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

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.

(see the answer keys)

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