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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 saves Hazel from the blaze set by the Klan?

2. What word does Mr. Pineville use while speaking to Papa that makes Papa angry?

3. Tony tells Stella that she should write about what subject?

4. Stella tells Mama that she feels in what way when she sees her ideas typed upon the page?

5. Which member of the Mills family at first does NOT want to walk to the site of voting on voting day?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Mama's main emotion in response to Papa's decision to vote in the election?

2. Who goes to the sheriff's office in order to lend support to the voters?

3. What is surprising about the choices Mrs. Grayson makes for the contest?

4. What metaphor does Stella use to describe Papa in relation to his act of voting?

5. What skill is said to be a major element of Stella's schooling?

6. In what ways do the men at the voter registration office belittle Papa?

7. Whose pieces of writing does Mrs. Grayson choose to enter into the contest and what is each piece about?

8. How do the themes of oppression and brutality appear within the scene outside the general store?

9. From what source is the story Mrs. Grayson tells the class about flying?

10. What is the significance of Papa's mention of a "standing stone" (124)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Look carefully at the passages of Stella by Starlight that describe the close relationship between Stella’s sense of hope and her goal of becoming a journalist. What is Draper’s purpose for portraying the nature of this connection?

Essay Topic 2

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Draper’s novel Stella by Starlight. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

What message does Draper send within the pages of Stella by Starlight concerning the link between brutality and oppression?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 875 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample