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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. In what city did the unnamed narrator commit adultery as a means to end her marriage to John?

2. In which season did the unnamed narrator have a discussion with the lawyer who claimed to have abandoned her child?

3. What kind of beverage were the women at the gathering drinking in Fresno, 2014?

4. Which of the four women in the group told her story first in the section entitled Fresno, 2014?

5. Which object does the unnamed narrator use in a metaphor describing her admission of adultery to John?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the setting of the section entitled Fresno, 2014 and which three new characters are introduced?

2. For what reason did the unnamed narrator decide not to become friends with Dominique?

3. What object does the unnamed narrator's mother give to her in the section entitled Los Angeles, 2012 and why?

4. How did the unnamed narrator always feel about the prospect of having a baby?

5. For what reason did the unnamed narrator make several attempts to commit adultery before she was successful?

6. How does the unnamed narrator answer her own question about why people confide in her?

7. What act does the unnamed narrator describe as having been attractive due to its promise of "finite pleasure" (180)?

8. What three feelings does the unnamed narrator recall feeling when John expressed interest in marriage counseling?

9. What method did the unnamed narrator eventually use to end her marriage and why?

10. When the identity of the father of the unnamed narrator's child is finally revealed, who is it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the ways in which the themes of adaptability and resignation appear within Popkey’s novel Topics of Conversation. What message is Popkey sending about these two themes over the course of the narrative?

Essay Topic 2

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Popkey’s novel Topics of Conversation. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Popkey's purpose for juxtaposing at least two different locations in a particular way within the text of Topics of Conversation.

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