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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. Which of the following durations does Leigh report for her flight to Taipei?

2. Which of the following is the reported title of Leigh and Caro’s collaborative art-class project?

3. Which of the following is the name of Brian’s old band?

4. To which of the following does Leigh compare the box the bird Dorothy became left her?

5. Which of the following does Feng bring with her when she first meets Leigh?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Leigh advance as a working definition of family?

2. What is contained in the box the bird Dorothy became left for Leigh?

3. How does Leigh describe Waipo upon meeting her?

4. Why does Brian note Leigh should not have received the box she reports receiving from the bird Dorothy became?

5. How is the Buddhist temple where Dorothy spent the most time in Taiwan described when Leigh approaches it?

6. What reasons does Leigh note for thinking her bicycle and Axel’s romantic?

7. What does Leigh note about her fourteenth birthday?

8. Why does Leigh excuse Axel’s “sucking up” to Dorothy (90)?

9. How does Leigh describe her late mother, physically?

10. What reasons does Leigh give for asserting that the body in the casket is not her mother?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Much is made in the novel about emails Leigh receives—rather than text messages or voicemail. What function does the choice or reported medium (i.e. email) have in the novel? How is that function achieved?

Essay Topic 2

Leigh notes that the first time she sees Brian cry since Dorothy’s funeral is in her grandparents’ home (57). What significance does it have that this is the case, and how is that significance put across by the novel and its contexts?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the paratextual features of The Astonishing Color of After—the headings of selected chapters, the differences in typeface in certain parts of the novel. What effect do they have on the narrative? How is that effect achieved? What purpose might the effect serve? How might it serve it?

(see the answer keys)

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