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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 old is Tea Cake?

2. What symbol returns in Chapter 11 as a feeling that Tea Cake awakens in Janie?

3. What do the men who work with Tea Cake think of Mr. Turner?

4. What does Janie take with her when she leaves?

5. What happens to Tea Cake as he and Janie are trying to get out of the water?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Janie say about the horizon at the end of her story?

2. How is the hurricane a metaphor for Janie's life?

3. Why does Tea Cake want Janie to work in the fields with him?

4. Compare Tea Cake's funeral to Joe Starks'.

5. What happens to Tea Cake at the card game?

6. What does Tea Cake do when Janie confronts him about Nunkie?

7. How does Tea Cake die?

8. How does Mrs. Turner view blacks?

9. Describe Janie's reaction when Tea Cake beats her.

10. How does Mrs. Turner react to Janie's snubbing of her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What impact does the colloquial dialect used in the novel have on the story and how readers relate to the characters? Discuss both the negative and positive effects that the characters' manner of speaking has the development of key elements of the story (e.g. characterization, setting, plot, themes, etc.).

Essay Topic 2

How did each phase of Janie's life, from childhood through adulthood, shape her into the woman who is telling the story in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

What elements are integral parts of how Hurston defines true love in the novel?

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