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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. How good was Lucy at managing her finances?

2. What did the specialist in Nashville tell Lucy about her condition?

3. Lucy was embarrassed that Ann saw ______________________.

4. Where did Ann take the man she dates to meet Lucy in 1994?

5. On her good days, Lucy was happy and _______________________.

Short Essay Questions

1. What were the circumstances of Lucy's death?

2. To what things did Ann attribute Lucy's depression?

3. What did Ann find especially alarming when Lucy read an essay at a Provincetown reading?

4. Where did Lucy go for rehab, and how did she feel about it?

5. How did Ann show that she was the ultimate mother figure to Lucy after her radical surgery?

6. What was Ann's experience with hives and how did it let her appreciate Lucy's struggles even more?

7. What kind of help did Lucy seek for her addictions, and how did she lie about what she was really doing?

8. Why was Lucy so pleased when Ann began to date a doctor in Nashville?

9. What was Lucy's pattern of happiness and depression?

10. What did Lucy reveal to Ann about her heroin use and her suicide wish?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The author tells her story through a series of flashbacks. Why did she choose to tell her story this way? In what way is a flashback technique more interesting for a reader? In what ways is it more complicated? Is there any other way to write a memoir?

Essay Topic 2

Ann and Lucy spend some time apart throughout the book to contemplate their lives. What do they think about? What conclusions do they arrive at? Explain why they seem to always be in a contemplative mood.

Essay Topic 3

It has been said that creative people such as writers and artists have some degree of mental illness which makes their work brilliant. Explain whether or not you think mental illness shaped Lucy's life and work.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 827 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample