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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. In what way is King related to Ava?

2. What is the name of the woman who will soon marry Josephine's family member?

3. How many pounds does the hog weigh that Josephine plans to serve at the wedding?

4. Charlotte asks Josephine whether she is a conjurer in order to get help with what medical problem?

5. In what scientific field does Ava have a college degree?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. In what way does Josephine demonstrate the power to empathize with those different from herself?

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

4. What is the significance of Gladys's visit to the home of Grandma Martha?

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

6. What main difference in narration exists between the 1924 and 1855 eras of Josephine's life?

7. What circumstances led to Josephine's mother remaining emotionally distant from Josephine?

8. What aspect of Gladys's health worries Ava, though she tries not to think about it?

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

10. What is the source of Josephine's anger toward her son Major on the day of Jericho's school function?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose an object from The Revisioners, such as the brass lamp, the tree under which Josephine prays, or some other symbolic object and discuss its overall meaning and its connection to themes within the text.

Essay Topic 2

Sensory details are used frequently by Sexton in order to create vivid pictures of each character's progression through the narrative of The Revisioners. Choose three scenes in which sensory details are heavily used and discuss how the sensory details used serve Sexton’s creation of vivid characters to populate the narrative.

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?

(see the answer keys)

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