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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 Beatrice answer when Aline asks how old she is?

2. Why did Claude kill his father?

3. In "Monkey Tails," where does Michel say they should go, to see what is going on?

4. What is the saying of Voltaire’s that Romain quotes to Michel?

5. How old was Claude when he killed his father?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Aline find when she investigates the house Beatrice called the Haitian prison guard’s house?

2. Whose point of view is the "Night Talkers" chapter written from, and where is it set?

3. Who are Beatrice Saint Ford and Aline Cajuste?

4. Why does Claude say that he is the luckiest man in the world?

5. What does Beatrice say is the secret to her coffee?

6. What news is the main character of "Night Talkers" bringing with him?

7. What is the action that takes place at Monsieur Christophe’s water station during the rioting?

8. Who is the main character of the "Monkey Tails" chapter, and where is it set?

9. How does Danticat characterize the events in the streets of Port-au-Prince?

10. Why does Dany think that Claude is lucky?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When is The Dew Breaker most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 2

Is The Dew Breaker a novel or a collection of interconnected short stories? How would you define either genre, and where do you see evidence that The Dew Breaker satisfies that definition? How do you account for contrary evidence in the book’s structure?

Essay Topic 3

Write a character sketch of the author based on her style and content. What can we tell about her, based on the choices she makes in terms of description, characterization and plot? What values does she hold dear? What are her hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think she is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

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