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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 Vicky accidentally upset Lorelei when she is trying to find a way to get Kayleigh to stop saying crude things in front of the children?

2. What is the name of the man that Rory smokes and drinks with at the commune while Kayleigh takes care of their daughter?

3. When Meg comes home for Easter the year she moves out, what is she especially angry to find that Lorelei has stored in her room?

4. What is Lorelei's sister's name?

5. What is Beth trying to talk to Meg about when Molly interrupts their phone call to complain about Alfie and her father?

Short Essay Questions

1. Based on Lorelei's emails, what seems to be true about her own childhood and its impact on the way she parents her own children?

2. What is foreshadowed by Lorelei and Vicky's conversation after Vicky confesses to having given some of Lorelei's things to charity?

3. When Kayleigh is talking to Beth about quitting smoking, what does Beth assume she is really saying, and why?

4. How does Colin's reaction to the art wall show that even early in the children's lives he is struggling with Lorelei's collecting?

5. When Molly asks Meg whether she would have liked Rhys,what is Meg's response?

6. In the early years of her relationship with Lorelei, how does Vicky view Lorelei, and how does she view Lorelei's children?

7. What lie does Vicky tell Meg about Lorelei's hoarding during Easter of 1999, and why does she tell this lie?

8. Describe Meg's complicated mix of feelings about Rhys.

9. Even though she is disgusted by her own behavior, why does Beth think she cannot give up her affair with Bill?

10. What is Alfie's full name, and what is its significance?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How would retelling Jewell's story as a linear narrative affect its impact on the reader? Write an essay in which you consider the linear timeline of the events of The House We Grew Up In and analyze how breaking that linear progression up with flashbacks affects the reader's experience. Describe the structure that Jewell chooses and show why it is effective in keeping the reader engaged and how it suggests meaning. Support your claims with analysis of how a linear account would destroy the effect of specific sections of the book as it is actually written.

Essay Topic 2

What is Meg's role in the Bird family? Why is she the one who gets off to the most successful start in life, and why is she generally able to hold her life together despite the obstacles in her way? Does Meg know herself and what she needs better than the other Birds? How does this impact her ability to understand and relate to other people? Does Meg know herself well enough to follow through on her beliefs, or do her actions sometimes contradict her beliefs? Would you say that she is better or worse than other characters, in this regard? Write an essay that explores how the failings that seem to plague the Bird family either do or do not plague Meg, and that analyzes why Meg seems bound for a more successful life from the start. Support your ideas with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 3

What is the significance of the thematic motif of birds in The House We Grew Up In? How does Jewell use the family name, Lorelei's devotion to the Easter egg hunt and collecting the egg foils, and other references to birds to convey ideas about home and family? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about the symbolic significance of birds and things related to birds in this text. Support your claims with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from throughout the text, making sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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