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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 does Ykka do with Maxixe's band of followers after the encounter at the stone forest?

2. Who is the Earth's lost child, for whose loss the Earth seeks vengeance?

3. On the trip to the station, Schaffa gives Nassun a reason why he believes the orogenes need to be controlled. What was his reason?

4. Who is waiting for Nassun and Schaffa at the bottom of the deadciv ruins in Old Man's Pucker?

5. Why does Essun suggest that the orogenes should stay awake all night as Castrima navigates the stone forest?

Short Essay Questions

1. What’s unusual about the building Kelenli leads the tuners to during their first lesson?

2. Why does Schaffa warn Nassun not to trust the obelisks?

3. Why can the stone eaters track Nassun?

4. Why must the orogenes be controlled, according to Schaffa?

5. What happened to Nassun’s father before the beginning of the novel?

6. Essun begins Chapter 1 with a group of caretakers. Where are they from and where are they headed?

7. What do the Conductors want Kelenli to help the tuners with?

8. What happened to Essun’s arm before the beginning of the novel?

9. Why does Ykka say she is mad at Essun when Essun first wakes up from her coma?

10. Why was Found Moon created?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In their final confrontation, Essun enrages her daughter Nassun by hesitating to help her with the Obelisk Gate. This leads to their opposing attempts to activate it as well as Essun’s ultimate fate. Analyze Nassun’s struggle to forgive her mother and explain how this struggle shapes the novel’s climax. Why does Nassun struggle to forgive Essun? What does this lead both characters to do? What does Nassun ultimately decide? What does this suggest about her feelings towards her mother?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay explaining the importance of fragmentation in the novel’s narrative structure. Why does Hoa shift so much between eras and points of view? How does the fragmentation of the narrative reflect the fragmentation between the characters? How does this fragmentation shape our understanding of the story?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay describing how Jemisin develops the theme of racism’s beginnings. What social and physical factors lead to racial prejudice in the setting of the novel? How are racist systems perpetuated from one generation to the next? How are racist systems enforced?

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