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. What is the first thing Anna did the day of the disaster when she did not feel her husband's hands?

2. What did the narrator's mother once tell her one would be amazed by?

3. Where did Anna live after touring Europe when she was young?

4. How many people died during the disaster?

5. What word does the narrator use to describe her mother's time in the hospital?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Anna and the narrator's father meet? What had he done prior to this meeting?

2. What was Anna's history with the Avalons?

3. Why does the narrator return to her childhood home to live with her mother after her father passes?

4. What quick actions did Anna muster in the first moment of the disaster during her performance?

5. How did the narrator think of her sister when she was young and why?

6. What injuries did Anna suffer on the day of the disaster? What happened when she was in the hospital?

7. Describe the narrator's sister's gravestone.

8. Where was Harold buried? Where was Anna and Harold's child buried?

9. What did the narrator's father teach Anna? What did she do for him in exchange?

10. What did the narrator's mother once tell her she would be amazed by? Where does the narrator think she may have told her this and why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss elements of the narrative structure: Exposition, conflict, complication, climax, resolution and conclusion. Do all the elements make for a logical and linear story? How does the story's structure express the story’s themes?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing Louise Erdich’s decision to tell the story using third person point-of-view from the narrator's perspective. How does this impact the reader's understanding of the story's events? Is this effective? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Genre is a category assigned to a literary work, like a novel. What are some genres that could be used to classify the story? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 684 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample