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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. In Chapter Eight: The Republic, who does Deborah say she oversaw in a Boston hotel?

2. In Chapter Seven: The Black and Blueish Darkness, what does Deborah say she got her mother on her mother's deathbed?

3. In Chapter Ten: X is Where I Am, who does Deborah say she rode with?

4. In Chapter Ten: X is Where I Am, what reason does Deborah say she gave Clara for why she had the bird clock?

5. In Chapter Ten: X is Where I Am, what does Deborah say she lost after her mother's death?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter Eight: The Republic, what does Deborah say Simone de Beauvoir fought against so strongly? Who did she refuse in this quest?

2. In Chapter Eight: The Republic, where does Deborah say she saw the word "winterized"? How did she apply this to herself?

3. In Chapter Seven: The Black and Bluish Darkness, what does Deborah say she needed to compose? How does she apply this as a metaphor?

4. In Chapter Eleven: Footsteps in the House, where does Deborah say she went and why? What does she say this reminded her of?

5. In Chapter Nine: Night Wandering, what does Deborah say happened when she read her book out loud at a festival in Berlin?

6. In Chapter Eight: The Republic, what does Deborah say her friend told her about her husband? What did Deborah muse about this?

7. In Chapter Eleven: Footsteps in the House, how do footsteps factor into the chapter? What do they symbolically represent?

8. In Chapter Eleven: Footsteps in the House, who does Deborah say were her companions on the train? How does she say they interacted?

9. In Chapter Eight: The Republic, how does Deborah say she compared herself to Simone de Beauvoir? How are their lives similar and different?

10. In Chapter Ten: X is Where I Am, what does Deborah say she told Clara about dating again? How does she say Clara responded?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Naming and its importance, is a major topic as Deborah becomes irritated that her male colleagues only refer to their spouses as "wife." As she says, "If we don't have names, who are we?" (8).

Apply this idea to how Deborah writes the autobiography. Who is named and who is unnamed in the autobiography? Which of the "characters" are male and female who are named and unnamed? Consider this about the naming and unnaming of wives for Deborah's male friends. What are considerations of naming someone, and how does Deborah use this in her autobiography account? Also consider how naming is a kind of seeing, and not naming is a kind of unseeing.

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the autobiography, Deborah Levy uses different struggles of race to discuss struggles of feminism. Examples of this include James Baldwin (48,49), and later Fanon (79, 80).

Write about how Levy applies feminism struggles to race struggles. Find one of the authors who Levy writes about, and write what they would say on this topic in addition to another writer you read in research, or have led in previous class. Put them in conversation with one another. What is your opinion of how Levy uses these different voices and aligns these struggles? Is it appropriation or appropriate? What does it do, and where is it unable to go further?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the names and themes of each of the chapters in the autobiography. Each one connects to a theme carried out in the chapter, as well as an overall cadence of the autobiography. How are the chapters grouped together or connected by their titles and themes, either in groups, or across numbers? How are they all connected together for a layout of narrative? Use the chapter names for an exploration of what the narrative arc of the autobiography is, and what parts are specifically connected to one another.

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