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

2. What do the police want to know about Winnie's relationship with Daniel?

3. What does Scarlett do in an attempt to disable the women's phones?

4. What is Nell's birth name?

5. What is Token's real first name?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. When Francie enters Winnie's home, what is the detail that she "can't help but notice," and what does this detail imply (265)?

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

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

5. In Chapter Twenty-One, what does the reader learn about Dr. H?

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

7. What are the implications of the papers that Francie finds in Scarlett's desk drawer?

8. When Token shows up at Francie's apartment in Chapter Twenty, what does he reveal about his long-ago arrest?

9. What is Francie sure that the man in the red baseball cap lied to her about, and why is she so certain?

10. What is ironic about Nell's boss's attitude when he is asking Nell about the magazine cover?

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

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.

Essay Topic 3

What message about the importance of perspective is conveyed in The Perfect Mother? How do the novel's multiple narrative points-of-view and perspectives contribute to this message? How do the characterizations of Scarlett, Francie, Colette, and Nell contribute? What role does the non-chronological opening play in reinforcing this message? How is this message related to the ironic counterpoint between the newsletters and the main text? How is it related to the dichotomy between the public's perception of the police and politicians and Molloy's characterization of actual officers and politicians in the text? What other elements of the novel support the novel's thematic concern with perspective-taking? Write an essay that analyzes how several elements of the novel work together to convey a message about perspective. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

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