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. In the novel, who does the mother favor?

2. How does the family's servant seem to function in the family?

3. What is the name of the narrator's friend?

4. Who in the novel is both physically and mentally abusive?

5. The family in the story consists of white citizens residing in the colony of Chochinchina. Where is the family originally from?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. Describe the mother's behavior toward her daughter's conduct during the height of her relationship with the lover in segments 15 and 16.

6. What becomes of the older brother after the narrator's family moves back to France?

7. Briefly describe the life of the narrator around the time she is fifteen.

8. Who is the Lady from Savana Khet and why is her story put in segment 15?

9. What is the relationship between the mother and Dô, and what does it indicate?

10. Why does the mother act oblivious about her family's plight and her children's behavior?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Look at the character of the older brother. Regardless of his bullying and wastrel ways, he is the favorite of the mother. What aspects of family life lead him to act the way that he does? How could the mother have affected his life if she had chosen to treat him differently? Is his attitude and personality connected to his later life? What happens to the older brother in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Although the colony of Chochinchina is a French colony, it is far removed from France. Explain the differences in the colony of Chochinchina and France as seen through the life of the narrator and her family. Do the differences have anything to do with the shift in time periods? Does life change for the narrator simply because she is no longer under the rule of her dysfunctional family?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,132 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample