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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. Who did Dillard see standing at the chess table in the Roanoke library one night?
2. Under what circumstances did Rabbi Uri of Strelisk tell his family to dispose of his manuscripts?
3. What does Dillard's "line of words" do with random pictures in the writer's mind?
4. Where does Dillard say she wound up putting her pen drawing in Chapter 2?
5. Saint-Pol-Roux used to hang what sign on his door while he slept?
Short Essay Questions
1. What, outside Dillard's library window, proved to cause the most distraction to her work?
2. What is the meaning of Thoreau's note that "The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance a palace or temple on the earth, and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a wood-shed with them"?
3. What decision did Dillard make to finally shut herself off from all distractions at the library carrel?
4. Why did a ritual slaughterer bid goodbye to his wife and children every morning as if it were his last, in Chapter 1?
5. Why does Dillard believe that putting together a book is interesting and exhilarating?
6. Dillard vows to remember her difficulties writing in Roanoke, Virginia. Why is this ironic?
7. What analogy does Dillard use to explain how a book leads its writer on?
8. When Dillard was working in the library at night, how did she find her way around in the dark?
9. Why did the inchworm in Dillard's story keep asking itself, "What! No further"?
10. Dillard describes the scenes from her desk at the library in Virginia. Why does she say these scenes are detrimental to her work?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
In working-class France, when an apprentice was hurt, the more experienced worker told him that "it is the trade entering his body." What is meant by this statement? How can art or creativity enter the body? How must a writer accommodate herself to the writing?
Essay Topic 2
What is wood-splitting a metaphor for in Chapter 3? What did Dillard learn besides how to properly split wood?
Essay Topic 3
In Chapter 6, Dillard explains the haunting aspects of the island on Haro Strait. What haunted Dillard about the island? What is it about these aspects of the island that can be related to the writing life in general?
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This section contains 1,016 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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