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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. Where did the family go after the father's death?

2. Who takes care of the family property?

3. What does the narrator praise of Hélène Lagonelle's?

4. What is Nouvelle Ecole Française?

5. Who travels between France and Chochinchina about every year or so?

Short Essay Questions

1. Is the narrator in control of the relationship with the lover, through its beginning to the end?

2. What is the narrator's relationship with her family later in life?

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

4. What events transpire on the trip to France aboard the ocean liner? Why are they important?

5. Who was blamed for the behavior of the husbands and why?

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

7. How was Dô, the family servant, treated by the family, and how did she react to this treatment?

8. Who chooses to ignore the relationship? Why?

9. Describe what would happen to the wives of the colonial potentates and the law of error.

10. Once wealthy, now all of the family's money is tied up in property investments. Describe the family property around the time the narrator visits it.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The narrator gives us a detailed account of her relationship with the lover. It is in fact, as she describes, the turning point in her life. Discuss the impact of the relationship on the life of the narrator. Include aspects of her early, middle and later life. How might the narrator's life have been different had she never met the lover?

Essay Topic 2

The relationship between the lover and the narrator lasted for a year and a half. Identify the course of the relationship and the key events that shifted the course. What is the beginning of the relationship? What is the highpoint of the relationship? When does the relationship take a downturn? How does the relationship end?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the positive and negative factors in the relationship between the narrator and the lover. How are the lives of the narrator and the lover impacted by their relationship? What are the societal implications of their relationship in the time it took place? Also, discuss the implications of a similar relationship in present day.

(see the answer keys)

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