View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Who is the character named Byron?

3. When the narrative opens, what major change are Ava and King in the midst of making?

4. Josephine reminds Jericho that the first time they had met Eliza, she had been wearing what kind of flower in her hair?

5. The group called the Revisioners was made up of how many members?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. How did young Josephine come to be a member of the Revisioners?

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

Analyze the ways in which the themes of adaptability and resignation appear within Sexton’s novel The Revisioners. What message is Sexton sending about these two themes over the course of the narrative?

Essay Topic 3

What ultimate message is Sexton sending about the nature of aging?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,045 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample