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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. Which of the following had Chona’s father sold?

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

3. What nickname does Chona have among the local Jewish community?

4. From which of the following does Malachi write Moshe?

5. How does the novel gloss the term “twart”?

Short Essay Questions

1. What event precipitates Bernice leaving school?

2. How does Isaac stereotype Bulgarians?

3. For what does Moshe take Malachi when the latter first arrives at the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store?

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

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

6. What does Nate use as a euphemism for his sister-in-law’s death?

7. Why does Moshe note not liking challah?

8. Why, per Moshe, is marriage complicated for new Jewish immigrants to America?

9. Why did Moshe have trouble advertising his first major show?

10. Why does Paper not work as a maid?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The novel comments repeatedly on the South, despite taking place in what is clearly the North. How is the South figured in the novel? What effect on the reader does that figuration have? How is it produced?

Essay Topic 2

Section divisions, their titles, and chapter numbering / division schema are all components of paratext. That is, they are not part of the text but are associated with it closely and affect its meaning. What significance, if any, accrues to the part- and chapter-titling scheme at work in The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store? If there is significance, how does that significance manifest? If there is not, what in the novel supports the paratextual divisions that are in place?

Essay Topic 3

Typically, an epigraph is expected to speak to or set the tone for the work it introduces. Does the epigraph of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, combined in the novel with its dedication, do so for the present novel? How or how not?

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