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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. After Gifty stopped speaking to Anne, for how long did Anne try to text Gifty before giving up?

2. What did Gifty begin worrying about after she was saved?

3. In Chapter 31, where does Gifty say her mother found Nana’s pills hiding?

4. In Chapter 36, Gifty reflects on the fact that growing up, and even in college, she heard or learned little of what?

5. In Chapter 40, Gifty says that at a certain point what fails?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Gifty notice about her mother at Mrs. Palmer’s funeral?

2. In Chapter 28, how does Gifty describe how she would often find her brother after he began taking drugs?

3. After Nana’s relapse following rehab, Gifty says she “went quiet and [her] mother went insane” (171). How did her mother behave in church that made Gifty feel she had gone insane?

4. What did Gifty’s brother say about the girl who made fun of her Walmart clothes that makes Gfity feel better even though she knows he should not have said it?

5. When Nana was withdrawing at home in Chapter 31, how did their mother treat him?

6. Describe the state Gifty finds her mother after coming home thinking that she was better because she did not find her in bed.

7. Though they knew of Nana’s addiction, why did they feel so surprised when the police officers told them that he had died of an overdose?

8. In Chapter 49, after Gifty could not sleep for a week and her mother found her up in the night watching T.V., who did Gifty tell her mother she talked to and how did her mother react?

9. In Chapter 38, how does Gifty respond when Katherine asks her why she got into her field of study?

10. What did Gifty note about her aunt and mother when Gifty and her aunt were at the airport in Ghana before Gifty headed back to America?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze Gifty’s relationship to her mother and how it changed over time.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay on Gifty’s friendship with Anne. Why were they drawn to one another? In what ways were they different? What might their friendship symbolize or represent?

Essay Topic 3

In the end, Gifty is with Han, running a lab in Princeton, and living close enough to a church that she can hear Church bells on Sunday. What does this ending represent about the progression of Gifty’s character?

(see the answer keys)

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