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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 does Reta question about her feelings for Tom?

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

3. What does Reta reveal about the first time she met Tom?

4. What has Reta attempted to talk about with her daughters regarding sex?

5. What is the first subject Reta and her writer friends discuss at the Orange Blossom Room?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Reta's husband Tom do for a living and how is it significant concerning Norah's absence?

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

3. How are Reta's feelings about sex related to her writing about Alicia and Roman?

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

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

6. Why does Danielle believe that Norah has embraced her powerlessness in society by living as a homeless person?

7. What are some concerns Reta has in creating her fictional character Alicia, and how are they significant?

8. 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.

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

10. 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.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Another major theme in the novel is the issue of homelessness and its consequences for the people affected by it.

1. Identify some preconceptions about homelessness that are disproved by the characters' actions.

2. What is Shields' overall message about people who are homeless?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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