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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 the first word Alicia speaks in Part Four, Chapter Nine?

2. What does the art therapist think about Alicia's artwork in Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Four?

3. Who is the subject of the painting Alicia creates in Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Eight?

4. According to Alicia's diary in Part Five, Chapter One, what did she think of Theo when he first came to the Grove?

5. As Theo stands outside Barbie's house in Part Two, Chapter Thirty, what does he feel?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Alicia in Part Five, Chapter One, why did Alicia kill Gabriel?

2. What happens to Alicia in Part Four, Chapter Seventeen? Who is held accountable in Part Four, Chapter Eighteen?

3. According to Alicia in Part Five, Chapter One, what made her recognize Theo?

4. How does Diomedes react in Part Four, Chapter Ten upon learning Alicia has spoken?

5. Why do Alicia and Jean-Felix argue in Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Two? What does he give her at the end of the argument?

6. According to Alicia in Part Five, Chapter One, what really happened on the night of the murder?

7. What does Theo notice in the Alcestis painting in Part Four, Chapter Six?

8. What painting does Alicia create in Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Eight? What does Theo realize about the work?

9. What happens when Theo and Alicia meet in Part Two, Chapter Thirty-Four?

10. According to Alicia in Part Four, Chapter Fourteen, what happened after Gabriel got home on the night of the murder?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Theo’s contradictory characteristics. In what ways is he protective? In what ways is he predatory?

Essay Topic 2

The epigraph to the first section of the novel comes from Freud: “He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore." Explain how Freud’s ideas apply to Theo, the first section of the novel, and the plot as a whole.

Essay Topic 3

At one point in the novel, Alicia experiences a sense of déjà vu and thinks that “the past and present were coexisting simultaneously” (126). Explain how the novel illustrates the fluid nature of time, for both Theo and Alicia.

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