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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. Who is Jericho?

2. Who is Senait, in relation to Ava?

3. How many months did it take Ava's savings to run out once she threw her husband Byron out of the house for cheating on her?

4. In what room does Ava find Grandma Martha crouched on the floor, rubbing her neck?

5. The narrator reveals that Josephine began her life as a what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What issue does Ava name as the one that led to the breakup of her marriage to Byron?

2. What type of help does Charlotte request from Josephine and what is Josephine's response?

3. Name two benefits of Ava's decision to move with her son King into Grandma Martha's house.

4. Discuss two instances when Ava engages in denial regarding Grandma Martha's behaviors.

5. Which two emotions does Ava note within Josephine's expression in the photograph?

6. For what event is Josephine preparing in 1924 when we first meet her?

7. Josephine says she had been sure that her eldest daughter would remain by her side throughout their lives. What happens to prevent this outcome?

8. What action of Josephine's causes Aristide to surrender to her way of thinking?

9. How did Jericho come to stay with Josephine for an extended period of time?

10. What epigraph does Margaret Wilkerson Sexton use at the beginning of the novel and what is one theme contained within the epigraph?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Sexton's choice to tell the story of The Revisioners using the first person accounts of both Ava and Josephine. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what are Sexton’s intended effects on the reader?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the instances of irony within the narrative of The Revisioners and analyze Sexton’s purpose for including each instance you discuss.

Essay Topic 3

Look carefully at the passages of The Revisioners that describe the close relationship between Ava and her 12-year-old son King. What is Sexton’s purpose for discussing at length the nature of the connection between this mother and son and in what way does the relationship contain several of the text’s main themes?

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