View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Whom does Gertie coddle the most out of all of her children?

2. What date does the narrator finally reveal as the one foretold to Simon by the fortune teller?

3. What do Klara and Varya find inside the lacquered box in Gertie's lingerie drawer?

4. What book does Klara buy at the magic shop after gleaning more information about the fortune teller?

5. Who is the oldest sibling in the Gold family?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of Klara's feelings about the phenomenon of red tide?

2. What do the Gold children bring to the fortune teller as payment for her services and why?

3. How does the author depict Simon's mixed feelings about his mother's decision to relinquish him at the police station?

4. What is the author's purpose for using the allusion to The Statue of Liberty when depicting the children's grandfather Lev?

5. What differences between Robert and Simon does the author depict as those that drive Simon to cheat on Robert?

6. What evidence does the author provide for the claim that the Gold children in 1969 "are siblings, this summer, in a way they never will be again" (4)?

7. How many years pass between the first knock Klara believes Simon is using to communicate with her from the afterlife and the second knock she hears?

8. Which of the Gold siblings is the most apprehensive about the prospect of visiting the fortune teller and why?

9. How is the theme of guilt depicted within Gertie's feelings about her son after his death?

10. The narrator takes pains to explain that Klara does not share her magic with people in order to deceive them. What is her true reason?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a critical essay about the novel while using the critical power theory lens of feminist theory. Use textual evidence to back up your strong, specific claim regarding the novel's treatment of gender roles, the objectification of women, female empowerment, misogyny's role within society, or any other issues related to feminist theory that can be found in the book.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's use of humor alongside humanist messages within the novel.

Essay Topic 3

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the book.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,336 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample