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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. Josephine offers to bring what objects for Vern's perusal before he rejects her offer?

2. Which character taught Josephine "her letters" (147)?

3. What is the name of the man who owns the Wildwood plantation?

4. To whom was Josephine referring in 1855 when she remarked to Missus that "a new man" (115) had arrived at Wildwood?

5. Eliza blames which member of her family for leading Major astray in his decision-making?

Short Essay Questions

1. Which people begin to stop visiting Josephine all at once, causing her to "go days without seeing another face" (175) in 1924?

2. Whose influence does Eliza tell Josephine is leading her husband Major to make bad decisions?

3. For what act does Ava feel gratitude toward Grandma Martha in relation to the period just after King's birth?

4. What action does Sally ask Josephine to take that Josephine then appears to have taken one month later?

5. Discuss an instance of foreshadowing within the text.

6. What change does Josephine notice in Charlotte after she reports becoming treasurer of a club she has just joined?

7. How does Josephine deal with the loneliness she experiences during one particular period of 1924?

8. What does Ava mean when she tells the reader that King "doesn't know [Grandma Martha] called him colored" and that he "doesn't know that she was looking for cabins" (198)?

9. For what reason does Vern come to Major's door to complain?

10. For what reason does Domingo encourage his wife Winnie to be less brave?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Sexton’s novel The Revisioners. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the novel.

Essay Topic 2

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 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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