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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. To whom are the travelers paying a visit once they reach Wisconsin?

2. At what time does Charlie return home on the night of the dinner party?

3. Every time Nico introduced Fiona to someone new, he had said, "This is the lady who" (3) what?

4. How are Nico and Fiona related?

5. Fiona tells her seatmate on the plane that she is planning to seek out which of her family members?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of the film Breakfast at Tiffany's for Yale?

2. What realization does Yale make while in the bathroom with Julian at the party?

3. What information does Fiona report to Yale about her family's cleaning out of Nico's place and how does Yale react?

4. What task does Arnaud say will "take a couple of days" (133)?

5. What is the most encouraging aspect of Nora's art collection, from Yale's point of view?

6. Characterize the relationship between Nico and Fiona prior to Nico's death.

7. In what way had Fiona spend her twentieth birthday and how had it contrasted with her twenty-first birthday?

8. What is the source of Yale's fear of being tricked?

9. What is described as the only disappointment within Nora's art collection as the authentication process moves forward?

10. What step must first be taken before art can be donated?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the reasons why Makkai chooses not to title the novel’s chapters. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what are Makkai’s intended effects on the reader?

Essay Topic 2

What is the function of Nico's character within the novel? Discuss the characterization methods used by Makkai in depicting Nico and include in your discussion the reasons that Makkai portrays Nico and his loved ones’ reactions to Nico’s death in these particular ways.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Makkai’s messages about guilt and responsibility within the novel The Great Believers.

(see the answer keys)

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