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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. What is Token's real first name?

2. In Chapter Seventeen, why does the man on the street bang on the windows of the cab Colette is in?

3. What do Colette and Nell do when they realize Scarlett has returned?

4. In Chapter Sixteen, whom is Token with when he leaves his apartment and Francie begins following him?

5. What does Lowell's mother announce triumphantly at the end of Chapter Eighteen?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. In Chapter Twenty-One, what plan for her career does Colette share with Charlie?

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

4. What argument do Francie and Lowell get into about a stroller, and what does the argument demonstrate about their relationship?

5. What is the scandal that disrupted Nell's life many years ago?

6. 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?

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

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

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

10. In the Patricia Faith interview that Nell watches while she is at work in Chapter Thirteen, what makes it clear that Faith is trying to promote a particular viewpoint about Midas's disappearance?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

For much of the book, the reader is meant to suspect that the first-person narrator is Winnie Ross. To what extent does this misdirection depend on Winnie's private nature and the tendency of others to project their own ideas onto the blank canvas of Winnie's introversion? How does this relate to the book's concerns with perspective? Does the book's art depend on the reader being just as culpable as the characters in the process of making assumptions about Winnie? Write an essay that affirms, refutes, or qualifies the following statement: "In The Perfect Mother, Aimee Molloy is able to mislead readers about the first-person narrator's identity by deliberately making Winnie hard to know and encouraging her readers to make the same kinds of assumptions about Winnie as other characters do." 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 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 3

How does Molloy's clever use of the name "Joshua" in the first-person narration mislead the reader? How does she introduce the name, and what techniques does she use to encourage the reader to associate the name with the narrator's former lover instead of her child? If the reader were aware from the beginning of the text that Joshua is the narrator's deceased infant, how would this change the reader's experience of the book? Write an essay that explores how Molloy uses the figure of Joshua to mislead the reader and prolong the puzzle of the first-person narrator's identity. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

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