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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 much did Moshe borrow from Isaac to fund a show?

2. How does the novel gloss the term “kishkes”?

3. How far is Pottstown from Reading?

4. What job does Malachi note having had?

5. Which church does Paper attend?

Short Essay Questions

1. What occasions Dodo’s deafness?

2. What event precipitates Bernice leaving school?

3. Why does Anna Morse leave the theatre business?

4. How do the people of Chicken Hill regard the devastation of Hurricane Agnes?

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

6. Why does Paper not work as a maid?

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

8. In the novel, what is the story of Moses and the burning coals?

9. Why does Chona have standing among the local Jewish community?

10. Why does Moshe note not liking challah?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sources attest to the presence of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store on best-seller lists. Assuming that sales figures reflect popularity, what accounts for the popularity of the novel? How does it do so?

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

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 558 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample