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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 did the daughters of the mothers of the1960's view sex?

2. What was waiting for Lessing's last son in his crib before he was born?

3. How does Lessing describe Frank Cooper's views on the world?

4. Who did Lessing work for at this point in her life?

5. According to Lessing, what tactic did the armies use to make killing easier?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 13, how did Lessing rationalize her decision to leave Frank and their two children?

2. Describe Lessing's ultimate assessment of the impact of the Communist Party in Southern Rhodesian politics.

3. How did Lessing respond to increasing unhappiness with her marital and home situation?

4. How did John react to the birth of his little sister?

5. Ultimately, why did Lessing think that she and Gottfried were mismatched?

6. Discuss Lessing's mini-vacation to Capetown.

7. Describe Lessing's decision to marry Frank Wisdom.

8. How did Lessing support herself when she no longer lived with her parents?

9. In Chapter 12, how does Lessing describe her first son, John?

10. In Chapter 18, what circumstances prevented Lessing from getting much writing done?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explore and discuss the way in which Lessing deals with mental illness in her autobiography. How did she approach the issue of mental illness? How did she treat the people whom she mentioned within her autobiography who suffered from mental illness? Was she sympathetic? Compassionate? Understanding? What effect did mental illness have on her life? How might that effect, if any, explain or illuminate her position on mental illness?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Lessing's perspective on social and political activism. How did Lessing connect theory and praxis? Were the people whom she associated with isolated intellectuals or were they activists for a particular cause? How did Lessing portray activist causes throughout her autobiography? What did she advocate?

Essay Topic 3

Growing up in two distinct regions of the British Empire, Lessing received a very intimate portrait of race relations in the British territories before the dissolution of the Empire. Analyze the way in which Lessing approached race and race relations in her autobiography. How did she define the term, race, among the people living in Persia and Southern Rhodesia at that time? How did the different races interact in Southern Rhodesia? How did Lessing's understanding of race compare or contrast with the opinions of those around her?

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This section contains 850 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample