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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 Sandy say Mavis dislikes about his personality?

2. What did Edith spend the money Lyman sent her on?

3. What does Mavis do for a living?

4. What did Lyman say he missed most while he was away?

5. Who was with Sandy as he buried his father?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. When, where, and how did John die?

4. What did Mavis and Edith tease Lyman about at the county fair?

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

6. What did Mavis say about Edith and Lyman while on the Ferris Wheel?

7. What did Leona announce in 1952?

8. On the night of Lyman's return, what did he bring out from his suitcases?

9. What 'joke' did Twyla tell Clevis and Sandy one night after a party?

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 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 2

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

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the death motif in the novel "The Tie That Binds." What deaths take place throughout the narrative? How do these deaths affect the principle characters of the novel? Is there any deeper meaning behind any of the deaths which take place in "The Tie That Binds"?

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This section contains 812 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample