View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter Three: Nets, what does Deborah say is behind the wallpaper of the Family Home?

2. In Chapter Four: Living in Yellow, what does Deborah say happened with her furniture?

3. In Chapter Four: Living in Yellow, what does Deborah say she called the corridors?

4. In Chapter Two: The Tempest, what does Deborah say she saw?

5. In Chapter Two: The Tempest, how long does Deborah say she and her ex were together?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter Two: The Tempest, how does Deborah apply the Big Silver metaphor to herself? How does she say she applied it to in her own life?

2. In Chapter Two: The Tempest, who does Deborah say she met at a funeral? What was his story?

3. In Chapter Four: Living in Yellow, where does Deborah say she moved? How does she say she thought about this move?

4. In Chapter Two: The Tempest, what did Deborah say she noticed about her male friends and colleagues? What did this lead her to question?

5. In Chapter Five: Gravity, what did Deborah say she started going through? What does she say the paragraph she read reminded her of?

6. In Chapter Five: Gravity, how does Deborah say she set up her shed? What did she furnish it with?

7. In Chapter Three: Nets, what does Deborah say her neighbor asked about as Deborah had packed up? What had Deborah's family members used these items for?

8. In Chapter Three: Nets, what does Deborah say holds together the family home? What does Deborah say is the disintegration of this story?

9. In Chapter Four: Living in Yellow, why did Deborah say she painted her walls yellow? Why did she paint them back to white?

10. In Chapter Four: Living in Yellow, what does Deborah write about her supporting her family in this time? What does she say about her freedom?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the autobiography, Deborah Levy discusses the breaking of the patriarchy's story by women and the consequences they may subsequently face. Turn to page 133. Levy writes:

"There are plenty of tears, but it is better to walk through the bluish and blackish darkness than reach for those worthless jewels" (133).

What is the bluish and blackish darkness that Levy writes about here? Use Levy and two other women mentioned in the autobiography to discuss what this darkness is, and how, finding their way, these women walk through it to the other side.

Essay Topic 2

The Cost of Living is an autobiography written by a writer with a playwright background. Which parts of the book seem most theatrical and suited to the theatre to you? Choose two passages that seem most theatrical to write, how does Deborah's experience and knowledge of the theatre shape the way she writes this autobiography?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the autobiography, Levvy uses many different metaphors to discuss writing: gardener, looker, gazer. What is the portrait she crafts about who a writer is and what they do? How is the role of the writer related to the role of the actor? How is the role of the writer related to the roles of women and men, mothers and daughters, mothers and fathers, as discussed throughout the book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 961 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample