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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. Does Bompie remember the stories Sophie tells him?

2. What poem does Dock recite from, when the boat reaches sight of land?

3. What river do the travelers cross to get to England?

4. Where is Rosalie leaving for?

5. Why does Sophie keep waking up Cody?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Cody describe the fog on the ocean journey?

2. As Dock tells his story of the little girl, what does Cody realize about Sophie's stories?

3. When the travelers arrive in Ireland, who are they able to reach by phone?

4. What does Mo do after he gets back from the trip?

5. What happens to the sails in the heavy wind?

6. What injury does Cody sustain in the large wave that hits the boat?

7. When the family comes to visit Bompie, how does he react?

8. What gift does Cody give his father?

9. What do Stew and Mo argue about?

10. What does Cody notice that Sophie does when retelling the story of their journey?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss men and women's roles in the novel.

1) Why does Sophie get angry when she is cast in a traditional women's role? Why does she want to do tasks that are traditionally male?

2) How does Cody react to implications that his tasks of cooking and cleaning are traditionally women's tasks? Why does he respond this way?

3) What is the author saying about traditional roles of men and women in society?

Essay Topic 2

The characters in the novel all deal with tragedy and loss. Discuss dealing with tragedy in the novel.

1) How does Dock deal with the loss of Rosalie? How is this loss a tragedy for Dock?

2) How does Sophie deal with the loss of her parents?

3) What other tragedies do characters deal with? Is Stew's loss of his job a tragedy? Does Cody deal with tragedy?

Essay Topic 3

The sea and The Wanderer are the main settings of this novel. Discuss setting and its importance in the novel.

1) Why is the sea the main setting of the novel? In what ways is the sea personified in the novel? What does Sophie expect from it? How does she respond to it?

2) How does The Wanderer function as a setting of the novel? What does the boat contribute to the novel? Why does the author set the novel on this boat?

3) How does setting affect the beginning and end of the journey, when the characters are in Kentucky, Grand Manan, Ireland, England, and elsewhere? How are these settings different from the sea and The Wanderer?

(see the answer keys)

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