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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. Why does Sughrue leave Melinda in the night?

2. What did Sughure do after Vietnam that many other soldiers did as well?

3. How do the police react to the answers from Sughrue and Rosie?

4. What does the friendly nurse reveal about Trahearne?

5. Why does Sughrue end up talking to Melinda after dinner?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Betty Sue have the power to make Sughrue fall under her spell when they have never met?

2. What does Sughrue's interactions with Jackson show about his investigative skills?

3. Are Sughrue's descriptions of Albert Griffith accurate? Why or why not?

4. What is shown by Trahearne's ex-wife hiring a private investigator to follow him?

5. How does Trahearne's interpretation of Catherine align with what the audience knows about her?

6. What prompts Sughrue to say he will "rise and do what [he] knew he had to do, to what [he] owed the women"?

7. What does Melinda's present life say about her now?

8. What does the audience learn about Trahearne's mother?

9. What is foreshadowed by Trahearne's eagerness to travel with Sughrue in the search for Betty Sue?

10. Is Edna's treatment of Sughrue out of character for her? Why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Character traits are shown through their living quarters. Contrast Sughrue's acreage to Trahearne's home. How do their homes indirectly characterize them?

Essay Topic 2

How is Selma Hinds a catalyst in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Trahearne has previous and successful writing and writing that he is wanting to complete. These two types of writing are very different. What does Trahearne's writing symbolize at different stages in his life?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 805 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample