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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. What does Meg learn is Lorelei's cause of death?

2. What does Meg feel when she sees her father, Tia, and Kayleigh entering the pub for the wake?

3. In 2005, what does Lorelei do for the first time in decades?

4. What seems to alarm Meg most about Lorelei's appearance at Vicky's funeral?

5. What is the first symptom of illness that Lorelei reveals to Jim?

Short Essay Questions

1. In her Chapter 8 email to Jim, what claim does Lorelei make about the cleanliness of her home, and how is this contradicted by evidence elsewhere in the text?

2. In her February 5th email to Jim, what ideas about the generational perpetuation of trauma does Lorelei express?

3. When Colin first meets Owen, how does Rory perceive the encounter, and what does this demonstrate about Rory?

4. What does Lorelei's Chapter 16 email to Jim reveal happened between her and Rhys on the night before Rhys's death?

5. When Beth receives Meg's text about Lorelei's computer password, why is she so relieved and happy?

6. What argument does the family have about Rhys during dinner in Chapter 14, and how does Meg settle the argument?

7. When the first floor of the house is completely cleaned out, what does Meg realize about Lorelei and the past?

8. What point does Lorelei make about Valentine's Day in her email to Jim?

9. When Rory arrives at Bird House in Chapter 14, how do his feelings about Lorelei and the house contrast with his memories of his childhood feelings?

10. How does Colin's conversation with Beth alter the reader's understanding of his conversation with Rory about Kayleigh and Tia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

On page 142, Beth says that her family members are "like a badly planned dinner party." What does she mean? Do you agree? What are the differences among them that she would point to? What deeper things do they have in common? Write an essay in which you consider how different the Birds really are from one another and what significance exists in the attributes they share. Support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 2

Choose one idea associated with Easter Sunday--religious or secular--and show how this idea is developed through the text's focus on the Bird family's celebrations of Easter. (Note that you are tracing an idea, like "rebirth," "salvation," or "springtime," not a tradition, object, etc., like "Easter egg hunts.") Trace the development of this idea throughout the text and show how this symbolic association illuminates important aspects of the Bird family's story. Support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 3

What is the function of the incest motif in The House We Grew Up In? How does it impact the reader's understanding of the characters and their struggles in life? How does it convey messages about healthy and unhealthy family relationships? Write an essay in which you describe how this motif is developed in the lives of the various family members, analyze the nature of this alleged "incest," and then advance a theory about what purpose Jewell intends the motif to serve. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from diction, details, narrative perspective, and plot.

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