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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 Hortensia realize she needs to at the end of Chapter Six?

2. What gossip about Marion does Bassey tell Hortensia?

3. How does Hortensia feel when she learns of Peter's daughter?

4. Where does Peter's daughter live?

5. What does Hortensia think about when looking at Peter's dead body?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Marion’s daughter Marelena feel about Marion’s displacement from home?

2. Why does Hortensia walk to the Koppie?

3. What is Marion’s current financial predicament in Chapter Three?

4. What is the Samsodien family claiming?

5. What happens in the construction accident?

6. How does Marion perceive race?

7. Why does Marion prefer her dog to her late husband?

8. Why does Hortensia not wish to help Beulah Gierdien?

9. Why do Marion and Hortensia argue over the remodel?

10. Why does Beulah Gierdien write a letter to the Katterijn community?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast Hortensia and Marion’s respective treatment and perception of their housekeepers, Bassey and Agnes.

Essay Topic 2

How does the theme of “design” function in the novel? In what ways is it a focus of both Marion and Hortensia’s lives?

Essay Topic 3

Hortensia and Marion may seem like very different women on the surface, but they have many similarities. Compare and contrast their overall life histories and world views.

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