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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 is the narrator as she narrates Chapter One?

2. What was the subject of Colette's first book?

3. What is Francie's baby's name?

4. What industry is the suspect mentioned in the file associated with?

5. Before leaving for his next meeting, what does the mayor ask Colette to send him?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. What does Francie mention having seen on Patricia Faith's television show, and how does Nell react?

3. How does Chapter One hint at trouble in the narrator's childhood?

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

5. How do the narrative perspective and point of view shift from the Prologue through Chapter Three?

6. How do Chapters One through Three characterize Francie?

7. In Chapter Five, why are the police being criticized for their handling of Midas's case?

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

9. How do Chapters One through Three characterize Nell?

10. What does Francie remember about Mr. Colburn, her high school science teacher?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Francie's financial circumstances make her particularly susceptible to stressors like Midas's disappearance. Now that you have finished the book, though, you also know that Francie's sensitivities are what lead to the recovery of Midas. Is this simply a matter of the characterization of Francie, or is the book making a larger point about the costs and benefits of being at the center versus being at the margins? Do Nell's and Colette's relative security make them less sensitive to what is happening around them? Write an essay that considers this larger picture of whether or not the text is arguing that financial security can contribute to less awareness of others. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

What messages about the media does Molloy convey in The Perfect Mother? Is there any irony in the fact that Molloy is making money and building a reputation by writing about kidnapping and murder, just as Faith makes money and builds her reputation by talking about kidnapping and murder on her show, or is there an important distinction between these two kinds of media? How do the high stakes of a murder investigation intensify the outcomes of Faith's journalistic decisions? How does the text's overall depiction of the press coverage of the investigation support the same messages as its depiction of Patricia Faith? How does the text's depiction of press coverage of Nell's relationship with Lachlan Raine also support these messages? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about the messages that The Perfect Mother sends about the media. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Given the thematic motifs in The Perfect Mother, why is it so appropriate that the solution to the mystery it contains rests on the reader finally understanding how identities have been obscured by assumptions? By the end of the novel, the reader is aware of having misunderstood the identities of Joshua, Token, and the first-person narrator. The novel's puzzle can only be solved when the reader fully understands each of these identities. What does this have to do with other aspects of the novel, such as the media's misrepresentation of people and the emphasis on perspective created by shifts in narrative point of view and perspective? Write an essay in which you consider how the inference gaps that structure this mystery mimic the novel's thematic concerns. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

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