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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 did Sandy smell when he got out of the car after the accident?

2. What did Sandy need to return to school to study in order to complete his degree?

3. What does Sandy say Mavis dislikes about his personality?

4. After Lyman returned home, what did he and Edith do some work on?

5. Who drove the car on the way home from the county fair?

Short Essay Questions

1. After John's death, what did Sandy and Leona argue about?

2. Who did John arrange to lease the Goodnough land, and why?

3. Why does Sandy say he is not proud of the decade that followed his mother's remarriage?

4. What was Sandy's educational standing at the end of his fourth year of college?

5. In spite of his objections, what did Sandy do for his mother when she decided to remarry?

6. What worried Sandy about Mavis' first pregnancy?

7. When Mavis decided it was time to get married, what did she tell Sandy to do?

8. How did Edith and Sandy feel about Lyman's return in 1961?

9. What did Edith tell Sandy she was looking forward to towards the end of Chapter 9?

10. What story does Sandy tell about the Wellrights?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the motif of family in the novel "The Tie That Binds." Discuss the Goodnoughs and the Roscoes. Are these families functional? Why or why not? What are some examples of familial relations?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the motif of duty. Who does the protagonist feel dutiful towards, and why? Did Lyman feel dutiful towards anyone? How does Edith's sense of duty affect her path in life?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Haruf's use of the flashback. Is it an effective way to learn about the past before the novel's start?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 776 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample