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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. When Simon is promoted from understudy to another position within the ballet company, what position does he achieve?

2. What name does Ruby's mother call her?

3. When the Gold children reach the fortune teller's door, Varya is surprised because she had thought that magic would be what?

4. In what type of venue does Klara NOT perform her act during her early days as a magician?

5. When a policeman asks Simon to come to the San Francisco police station, what does he tell Simon is the purpose of his visit?

Short Essay Questions

1. What aspects of Robert's character are depicted as those that make him "stand out" (59) to Simon?

2. What is the symbolism of the sequins that turn up everywhere inside Klara's home?

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

4. Who is the first of the Gold siblings to hear about the fortune teller and what action does this sibling then take?

5. What does the narrator mean when describing Simon's impression of the Castro district as being like a "fallout shelter" (79)?

6. How did the Gold children's maternal grandmother die and why are the children adults before they find out this information?

7. What is Robert's reaction to the AIDS epidemic and how does it differ from Simon's?

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

9. How is repetition employed within the opening passage of Part Two:Proteus and to what effect?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss how and why the author instills three different humanist messages into the narrative of The Immortalists.

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

Determine the author's message regarding the idea that everyone's fate is predetermined. If she does not approve, prove it with evidence from the text and discuss the actions she presents as alternatives. If she does approve, prove it with evidence from the text and discuss the justification she provides for such an extreme position.

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