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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. What troubles Norah when she comes home one weekend her second year at university?

2. What is the name of the hostel Reta writes a check to each month?

3. Whose personality is Reta worried about developing in her novel?

4. What two languages are spoken during Reta's childhood?

5. What kind of woman does Reta realize she cannot create for a heroine in her novel?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Reta realize that she cannot create a perfect woman as a hero in her novel?

2. Why is Reta reluctant to give Arthur Springer a first draft of her novel, and what does it reveal about her writing?

3. How does Reta respond to the death of Mr. Scribano and how is it significant?

4. Why do Reta and her writer friends at the Orange Blossom Room conclude that the concepts of goodness and greatness are incompatible for women?

5. Describe the response of the Winters' family to seeing the hostel where Norah stays and its significance.

6. According to Ben, how has Norah changed in the few weeks prior to her disappearance?

7. Describe Reta's feelings about the formation of her inner dialogue, the "longest conversation" that goes on in a lifetime in a person's mind.

8. What is Reta's complaint in her letter to the editor of a literary magazine regarding one of its advertising pages?

9. What does Reta do each month that indicates her attempt to live up to an idea of "goodness?"

10. What attempt does Reta make to bribe her daughter Norah to come home when she visits her on her street corner and how successful is she?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Healing, both physical and psychological, is significant to the characters' recovery in the novel. Identify the ways in which the Winters family heals from the stress and trauma over the past year.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the role of minor characters in the novel.

1. Identify three minor characters and their relationship to the major characters.

2. Describe these three minor characters' physical and psychological attributes. Are they flat or round?

Essay Topic 3

How does Shields portray heroines in the novel? Respond to the following:

1. What characters can be regarded as tragic heroines?

2. Discuss Reta's ideas about heroines and heroism.

3. How are the heroines in the novel in opposition to society?

(see the answer keys)

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