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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. When Winnie is in Token's apartment, what does she see Patricia Faith arguing with someone about on television?

2. In Chapter Twelve, how does the narrator remember her mother characterizing her?

3. Which is the most reasonable interpretation of Nell's intentions when she tells Token to call the police if they do not come back out of Scarlett's building?

4. When the neighbor Nell runs into at the Spot mentions hearing Beatrice crying at night, what does Nell claim?

5. When Colette calls Francie in Chapter Twenty, what is she so worried about that she is crying during the phone call?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter Fifteen, what promise does the narrator remember making and then immediately breaking?

2. What are Nell's motivations for ignoring her own standards in order to accept and keep the job at Simon French?

3. In Chapter Thirteen, what confusion does Nell express about her mental state on the night of July 4th?

4. What does Francie read in Scarlett's journal, and what does this journal entry make clear to the reader?

5. What is ironic about Ghosh's Chapter Twenty press conference statement that everyone involved in the investigation has done "a stellar job" (276)?

6. Where did Token get the papers that he gives to Falk, and how have his intentions regarding these papers shifted since he gained possession of them?

7. How does Francie's mental state both help and hinder the efforts to find Midas?

8. How does Chapter Seventeen open, and what does this opening make clear about Nell and Sebastian's relationship?

9. How does Francie feel about her mother-in-law, and why?

10. At the beginning of Chapter Nineteen, what troubling event is the narrator imagining happening?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What messages about impulsiveness and risk-taking are conveyed in The Perfect Mother? Which characters make risky or impulsive decisions? Do these kinds of decisions turn out differently for "good" and "bad" characters? Do the consequences--or lack of consequences--characters face seem realistic? How would the tone of the book change if the three amateur sleuths at the center of the story faced dire consequences for their choices? Would this impact the book's entertainment value? How much of the good luck these characters experience is simply necessary given the book's genre, and how much is actually meant to convey messages about risky and impulsive behavior? Write an essay that takes and defends a position on the messages the text conveys about impulsiveness and risk-taking. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Molloy's novel introduces readers to women from strikingly different walks of life, with strikingly different personalities, and posits that they would all have similar difficulty adjusting to motherhood. How realistic is this message? What research-supported evidence is there about women's adjustment to motherhood and the difficulty of taking care of a newborn's needs? What does research show about the differential impacts of parenthood on women versus men? Is this picture changing in modern times, or does parenthood continue to impact women in different ways than it impacts men? Write an essay that considers how accurately Molloy's novel depicts the most common experiences of new mothers in our society. 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

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.

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