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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. How does the narrator know The Woman in the Purple Skirt?

2. What does the director condemn the staff for in the first meeting on the Woman's first day?

3. What most disappoints the narrator during the meeting with the manager on Woman in the Purple Skirt's first day?

4. What family event marked the last time the narrator saw her sister?

5. What did the narrator have to pay to repair after bumping into it one day?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the training the director gives to the Woman in the Purple Skirt on her first day,

2. How did the narrator once try to engage with the Woman in the Purple Skirt? What was the result?

3. In what ways does the Woman in the Purple Skirt remind the narrator of her sister? What is the narrator's relationship with her sister?

4. Who does the narrator follow at the start of the story? Where does she go each week? What does she buy? Where does she sit after?

5. What does the narrator overhear Supervisor Tsukada and the director saying about the Woman during her first day on the job?

6. What does the narrator leave on the Woman's park bench to assist in her job hunt?

7. Why is the narrator not surprised when the Woman struggles to get hired?

8. How do the hotel employees feel about the Woman in the Purple Skirt when she first starts working there?

9. What surprises the narrator about the Woman in the Purple Skirt after they begin to work together?

10. Describe the first monthly staff meeting that the Woman attends. What is the focus? How does she behave?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the author of The Woman in the Purple Skirt. Who is she? What else has she written? How is The Woman in the Purple Skirt similar or different from her other works?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay comparing and contrasting the narrator and the Woman in the Purple Skirt. What details help develop their character and what do these details tell you about them? What is their background? How do they know each other? How do they interact? In what ways are they similar or different? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay analyzing Imamura's language style and word choice in The Woman in the Purple Skirt. What are some words that stand out to you and why? What words are repeated? What words are most impactful? Explain your answers.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 907 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample