View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What story does Laura's mom tell about Laura at a dinner party that deeply embarrasses Laura and makes her wary of telling her things in the future?

2. What happens to make Laura wonder whether the Log Lady had been telling the fortune of the wrong Laura Palmer when she had predicted happiness for her?

3. What happens within Maddy's dreams about Laura?

4. When Laura gets home, her mother tells her that the Log Lady's husband had died, leaving the Log Lady a widow. How did her husband die?

5. Laura says that sometimes her bedroom is the best place in the world, but says it is different other times. What does she say about those other times?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Donna leaves the fort to go to the bathroom, Maddy uses the opportunity to tell Laura something. How do her comments depict the novel's theme of prophecy?

2. What does Laura say about her feelings after the escapade with the Canadian guys in the woods?

3. What is Donna's and Laura's goal when they return to the Book House all dressed up in short skirts and made up faces?

4. How is the theme of hope represented in the poem Laura writes on July 30, 1984, entitled "Someday Growing Up Will Come Easier"? (14)

5. When Maddy tells Laura and Donna what it feels like to kiss with tongues, Laura says the description makes her feel good inside, a feeling that she says is different. Though she cuts herself off from finishing her sentence, what does the reader know she is referring to?

6. When Donna and Laura leave the guys by the fire in order to relieve themselves, they get really scared. What are they scared of?

7. How does Laura feel when she tries smoking for the first time?

8. What method does Laura decide to use in order to drive BOB away and stop the sexual abuse he is inflicting on her?

9. What does Donna do when Laura runs out of the house when they are discussing the breakdown of their friendship?

10. What had Donna's and Laura's experience with alcohol been prior to their escapade into the woods with the three Canadian guys and the bottle of gin?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the novel's classification as a work within the bildungsroman genre. What messages is the author sending through her depiction of Laura's psychological and moral growth throughout her formative years? Include concrete details from the novel's diary entries to prove your claims.

Essay Topic 2

How does the reader's uncertainty about the true identity of Laura's abuser referred to as BOB ensure that Laura, the victim, will be the focal point of the story, rather than the abuser? How is this choice by the author a radical one and what message is it sending about the roles of abuser and abused within society? Prove your claims with quotes from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the significance of Laura's meeting with the Log Lady. What is the author's purpose for including this scene and what message does the scene send to the reader? Support your answer with quotes from the scene and from elsewhere within the novel.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,437 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample