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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. How does Hagar say good-bye to her brother, Matt, when she leaves for boarding school?

2. What did Bram do after the harvest was over?

3. At her visit to Silverthreads, Hagar is seated on the veranda for a cup of tea. What does she think the tea tastes like?

4. What does Bram tell Hagar when she says she is leaving and taking John?

5. What does Hagar tell Mrs. Steiner about the death of her son John?

Short Essay Questions

1. Hagar is very attached to her things in the house. Describe a few of them.

2. What are John's character traits in Chapter 5? Do you think they affect his future?

3. Describe some differences Hagar sees in Marvin and John.

4. What does Hagar's action to go to Shadow Point say about her willingness to accept her current physical state?

5. In Chapter 1, how does Hagar see herself?

6. What purpose does Doris serve and how is she contrasted against Hagar?

7. How is the symbolic use of wings portrayed in Chapter 3?

8. Compare the birth of Marvin the the birth of John, and Hagar's feeling with both.

9. Describe how Hagar is dressed when, in Chapter 5, she sets out for Shadow Point. What do you think this says about her?

10. What is the role reversal that takes place between Hagar and Lottie Drieser?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do the wild flowers in the cemetery reflect in Hagar? In what ways are the alike? Please provide specific examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast how Hagar views John and Marvin at birth, as children, and as men. Describe how John and Marvin really are, and how Hagars blindness in symbolic to the stone angel's.

Essay Topic 3

Compare John Shipley to his father Bram.

Part 1) In what ways are they alike in the beginning?

Parts2) How are they more alike toward the end of the novel?

Part 3) When do you think Hagar notices their similarities?

(see the answer keys)

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