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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 fish does Chess say are in the lake?

2. What car does Lavery drive?

3. Did anyone tell Muriel about the man who was possibly looking for her, according to Birdie?

4. What was the detective who Mrs. Almore's parents hired to investigate her death sent to jail for?

5. What does Marlowe tell Birdie?

Short Essay Questions

1. What important information does the bellhop at the Prescott Hotel offer, based on the photo of Crystal Kingsley?

2. What does Marlowe discover when he examines the item he takes from the woman in Lavery's house?

3. How does Kingsley act, when Marlowe first meets him?

4. What reasons does Marlowe give that Lavery might be lying?

5. Under what terms does Marlowe accept the offer of five hundred dollars from Kingsley?

6. Where is Lavery going, when he leaves the house?

7. Where do Marlowe and Birdie go to talk?

8. How does the woman in Lavery's house leave?

9. What items of interest does Marlowe find in Lavery's closet?

10. What does Marlowe say to do about the handkerchief.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the treatment of women and the idea of the femme fatale in the novel.

1) What are the women in the novel like? Are there positive and negative women characters, and what are their qualities? How do they compare to real women?

2) Who in the novel is a femme fatale? How is any femme fatale in the novel similar to and different from the archetype of the femme fatale?

3) How do women treat men in the novel? How do men treat women?

Essay Topic 2

The Lady in the Lake involves characters changing and hiding their Identities. Discuss the concept of identity in the novel.

1) How is identity obscured in the novel? Who attempts to obscure their identity, and why?

2) How do the characters know others' identities? How do characters create their identities?

3) How does Marlowe formulate his own identity? How do others perceive him?

Essay Topic 3

The Lady in the Lake is written in the first person narrative point of view, from the perspective of Marlowe. Discuss the novel's point of view.

1) Why does the author choose the first person narrative point of view? Why is the story told from Marlowe's perspective?

2) What does Marlowe reveal to the reader, as narrator, and when? What does Marlowe keep hidden from the reader, though he may know it himself?

3) How does the first person narration affect the tone of the novel? How is it appropriate to the genre?

(see the answer keys)

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