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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. Who is Dr. H?

2. What is the name of the former Secretary of State who is now raising money for Teb?

3. What does Nell bring to the park that surprises the May Mothers?

4. Why does Nell text Francie and Colette to turn on the Patricia Faith show right away?

5. What is Francie disappointed to learn about Scarlett?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Winnie leave on the table at the bar, and where does it eventually end up?

2. When Colette takes the Midas file for the second time, what does she see that links her to the case and what does she do with it?

3. In Chapter Nine, what has changed about the narrator's situation?

4. When Colette is at the park in Chapter Eight, what secret desire is she thinking about, and what stops her from trying to obtain it?

5. When the narrator is pacing inside her house, what memory does she recall, wondering if it was a hallucination?

6. When Colette arrives home after her run in Chapter Eight, what do she and Charlie argue about?

7. What is Nell's theory about Token, and why does Colette believe Nell is probably mistaken?

8. How does Bodhi Mogaro's attorney explain away the evidence against Mogaro?

9. When the police arrive at Nell's to question her, what memory from her past temporarily confuses her?

10. What is revealed about Colette's mother in Chapter Seven?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Molloy's purpose in pointing out that adverse circumstances like the kidnapping of a child can cause a flare-up in anti-immigrant ideas? How is this thematic motif in The Perfect Mother related to the book's concerns with perspective-taking and judgment of others in general? How is this motif related to the book's concerns with the marginalization of women? Write an essay in which you consider how The Perfect Mother's status as a domestic thriller makes it ideally suited for exploring how adverse, high-intensity circumstances differentially impact marginalized groups. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Now that you have finished the book, you are aware of the sequence of events that led Scarlett to kidnap Midas and what Scarlett hoped would be the result of her actions. How does this relate to Midas's name? What elements of the King Midas story do you see reflected in Scarlett's choices and their outcomes? In the original story, the audience is meant to judge King Midas for his greed and lack of forethought--but does Molloy seem to be encouraging her reader to judge Scarlett in this way? What mitigating effect does Scarlett's state of mind have on the reader's judgment of her? How do the social pressures on women that this book explores provide an additional mitigating factor? Write an essay in which you explore how Molloy intends the reader to interpret the allusion to King Midas. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence and evidence drawn from outside sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

What messages about female friendship are conveyed in The Perfect Mother? How do these messages relate to the novel's concerns with marginalization and the role of women in American society? How does the novel portray the complexity of friendship, and which aspects of friendship does it seem to value most? Write an essay that takes and defends a position about the messages this novel conveys about friendship among women. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

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