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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. According to Reta, what are women still dismissed and excluded from?

2. How does Reta approach Norah when she visits her in early November?

3. How old does Christine, Reta's daughter, turn in October?

4. What American event are Tom and the girls presently fixated on as they watch the news?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Reta Winter's thoughts and feelings as the novel opens.

2. How do Natalie and Christine attempt to give the impression that Norah's absence is part of a normal routine?

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

4. Why does Reta wake up with anxiety about cleaning her house?

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

6. Why does Norah make the sarcastic observation in her letter to Alexander Valkner that he must have suffered from extreme fatigue when he thought of his list of "literary big cats"?

7. Describe Reta's peculiar behavior when she visits Norah in early November.

8. During Norah's visit from university the previous year, Reta states that she knew how "wildly out control" Norah was, how "she'd become dangerous to her own being." Describe why Reta comes to this conclusion.

9. When does Reta's mind begin to wander and what does she think of during dinner with Tom's physicist friend, Colin Glass?

10. Describe Norah's thoughts about the two main characters in her novel, and why they are significant.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Discuss the role of setting in the novel, responding to the following questions:

1. What facts about the city of Toronto relate directly or indirectly to the lives of the characters?

2. What facts about the time in which the novel is set, 2000-2001, relate directly or indirectly to the novel's themes and overall meaning?

Essay Topic 3

Shields uses the first-person point of view to show Reta's thoughts and actions, though the focus of the novel is the mystery of Norah's disappearance and subsequent homelessness. Respond to the following questions:

1. Why do you think Shields chose the first-person instead of third-person ("she")?

2. How would the novel be different if the story was told from Norah's point of view?

3. Since the first-person is a limited perspective, how would using an omniscient point of view change the tone or meaning of the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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