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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. The narrator believes her parents never took down the chicken-wire enclosure because

2. The first danger the group encounters is

3. David blames the changes in the town and the negative outcomes on

4. What is significant about the narrator's brother drowning?

5. The narrator remembers a tugboat with a house on it that appealed to her because

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe David's view of his marriage.

2. What kind of relationship does the narrator seem to have with Joe?

3. What is significant about the narrator's description of the herons?

4. What images or ideas related to identity do we get in the beginning of the novel?

5. Describe the narrator's initial beliefs about Americans.

6. How does David feel about Americans?

7. What is significant about the fact that the others have locked the narrator out of the cabin?

8. What does the dead heron represent for the narrator?

9. What is the narrator's occupation?

10. What were the narrator's experiences with religion as a child?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Andrea Dworking said, "Marriage meant the taking [of a woman by force] was to extend in time, to be not only use of but possession of, or ownership." Write an essay in which you defend or refute this statement based on evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Consider the narrator's definition of American. What does it mean to be an American according to the narrator? Who or what in the novel is represented by the term American and why?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the motif of isolation in Atwood's novel. Write an essay in which you explore the connotation of isolation and identify examples of isolation in the text that contribute to Atwood's message.

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