Print
Word
PDF
|
| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What two problems does Dillard say she feels that a writer must solve when writing a book?
2. As put by Dillard, what is the vision in a writer's or painter's work?
3. Where did Dillard forget about a boiling teakettle and burn it?
4. What passage was Dillard working on in the cabin on Puget Sound while a northeaster was blowing?
5. What did Dillard learn about herself while talking with the sheriff in Chapter 3?
Short Essay Questions
1. The next-to-last sentence of Chapter 5 reads, 'Shall we go rowing again, we who believe we may indeed row off the edge and fall?' What does this refer to?
2. Why does Dillard compare a writer writing a first draft to a Zulu warrior and an Aztec maiden?
3. In Chapter 4, Dillard's typewriter erupted. What was the damage done?
4. What was Glenn's story about Ferrar Burn?
5. What did writers such as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Ralph Ellison, and Eudora Welty have in common when learning to write, according to Dillard?
6. Who was Paul Glenn?
7. Why does Dillard say that she needed more materials than a pencil and paper in order to write something like a second draft for a thirty-page chapter?
8. Why was a moth trying to gain altitude and ultimately drowning, in Chapter 3?
9. When Dillard mentions that Thoreau's firewood warmed him twice because he labored to cut his own wood, why does she say that her wood froze her twice?
10. What does Dillard mean in Chapter 5 when she writes, '...instead we watch television and miss the show'?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Which of the metaphors in Chapter 1 likens Dillard to an explorer searching out new realms without really understanding the meaning of it all as yet? Does this metaphor work? Why or why not?
Essay Topic 2
Describe Dillard's reasoning behind why it makes more sense to write one long book rather than many stories or essays. Use the comparison of book chapters to short stories in your explanation.
Essay Topic 3
What is the overall theme of Chapter 1? Give examples to support your answer.
|
This section contains 1,024 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
|
