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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. Which upcoming event produced in the unnamed narrator feelings of satisfaction mixed with fear?

2. Who told a story at the gathering about seeing an example of real love inside a Home Depot store?

3. The unnamed narrator continually ate what kind of food throughout the gathering of mothers of infants?

4. The unnamed narrator states that she believed her married lover when he made what promise?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Discuss an element of the unnamed narrator's writing voice that shares qualities with her speaking voice.

3. How does Popkey employ a metaphor to indicate the pain the unnamed narrator caused John with her infidelity?

4. In what specific setting does the story told by the unnamed narrator in the section entitled Santa Barbara, 2016 take place?

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

6. In what way does Popkey purposely mislead the reader at the start of the section called San Francisco, 2012?

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

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

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

10. Discuss at least one negative coping mechanism that the unnamed narrator uses once she has gotten sober.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss John's role within the events of the novel and explain how his character helps to further develop certain themes inherent in Popkey's novel Topics of Conversation.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Trace the characterization arc of the unnamed narrator's character throughout the novel Topics of Conversation. Discuss whether she is a round or flat character and whether she is a static or dynamic character.

(see the answer keys)

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