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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 the novel gloss the term “kishkes”?

2. How much did Moshe borrow from Isaac to fund a show?

3. In what group did Chulo Davis play?

4. To what city does Malachi note having gone when coming to America?

5. How far is Pottstown from Reading?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Anna Morse leave the theatre business?

2. How do local officials respond to Moshe integrating his theatre?

3. Why does Paper not work as a maid?

4. What had attracted the Black population of Pottstown to Pottstown?

5. What event precipitates Bernice leaving school?

6. What rumor surrounds Norman Skrupskelis?

7. How does Malachi respond to the assertion that a mezuzah belongs on a door?

8. To what does Chona ascribe her and Moshe’s commercial success?

9. How does Nate dispose of Malachi’s challah?

10. What occasions Dodo’s deafness?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the novel, some characters are given but one name, while others are given first- and surnames, and still others are accorded names and titles. What significance, if any, accrues to patterns of naming in the novel? If no significance accrues, what purpose might be served by the patterns of naming in the novel? How does The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store bear as much out?

Essay Topic 2

To what other writer’s work in your experience does McBride’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 3

What attitude towards the supernatural does the novel betray? How does it convey that attitude?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 486 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample