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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who are evident but unequal friends in the novel?
(a) The lover and Dô.
(b) Hélène Lagonelle and the lover.
(c) The mother and Dô.
(d) Dô and the older brother.

2. What happens to the wives of the colonial potentates as they age in the colony?
(a) They get wiser with the years.
(b) They tutor the younger women.
(c) They slowly grow mad.
(d) They grow closer to their husbands.

3. As a young woman, the narrator was _________.
(a) Ugly.
(b) Quiet.
(c) Beautiful.
(d) Funny.

4. Later in her life, whose photograph does the narrator see that reminds her of herself as the young woman on the ferry?
(a) Her mother as a young woman.
(b) Her twenty-year-old son.
(c) A movie star of the day.
(d) A friend from her childhood.

5. What type of stores does the narrator often visit?
(a) Grocery stores.
(b) Lingerie stores.
(c) Twice-discounted clothing stores.
(d) Writing supplies stores.

Short Answer Questions

1. How long does Dô stay with the mother?

2. Because of her early family life, what does the narrator believe to be true about herself?

3. How does the narrator think the younger brother died?

4. In contrast to what the mother plans, what does the narrator want to be?

5. Around what time is the novel narrated?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the lover fear that the narrator wants from the relationship, and how does the narrator respond?

2. How does the lover feel about the narrator at the end of the relationship?

3. The lover makes a comment about the narrator's method of transportation. What is it...why is it strange... and what does it indicate?

4. How does the narrator feel about the sex and the relationship at the beginning of the relationship?

5. Who chooses to ignore the relationship? Why?

6. Why does the mother choose to voice her opinion to the narrator right before leaving for France?

7. Do the narrator and the lover have contact at any point after the narrator leaves Chochinchina for France? If so, describe this contact.

8. In segment 13, what happens between the narrator and the lover that results in the narrator being turned off by the lover for the first time?

9. Explain why the relationship would not have lasted even if the narrator would have remained in Chochinchina.

10. On occasion, when the mother would emerge from her depression, she would instruct the house to be cleaned. How would the family respond and why do you think they would feel this way?

(see the answer keys)

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