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Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
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 during Chapter Fifteen?
2. What does the Bible quote on the flyer at the prayer vigil imply is true?
3. Why does Francie go back into Scarlett's bedroom after she has already agreed to leave the apartment?
4. In Chapter Thirteen, what is Nell seeking when she decides to put her hacking skills to use?
5. What snacks does Scarlett serve the other women?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does the book's epilogue convey the lasting damage that Midas's abduction has caused Winnie?
2. What is ironic about Ghosh's Chapter Twenty press conference statement that everyone involved in the investigation has done "a stellar job" (276)?
3. What is the scandal that disrupted Nell's life many years ago?
4. When Francie talks to Token in his apartment, what does she learn about his relationship, and how is this information expanded on later, when the narrative shifts to Token's perspective?
5. What are Nell's motivations for ignoring her own standards in order to accept and keep the job at Simon French?
6. How does Francie feel about her mother-in-law, and why?
7. What argument do Francie and Lowell get into about a stroller, and what does the argument demonstrate about their relationship?
8. In Chapter Twenty-One, what plan for her career does Colette share with Charlie?
9. What are the implications of the papers that Francie finds in Scarlett's desk drawer?
10. What frightening event happens while Colette is on the subway, and how does she react?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
How does the time ordering of the novel's opening--the prologue, Chapter One, and Chapter Two--create suspense and dramatic irony that increase reader engagement with the novel's characters and its central puzzle? Write an essay in which you describe this time order and then analyze the impact that it has on the reader. Discuss the choice to begin in medias res, the use of flash-forward, the revelations that create suspense and dramatic irony, and how these techniques increase the reader's interest in the characters and the events they are caught up in. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the novel's opening; 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
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.
This section contains 1,446 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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