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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Price accompany Tom before they part?

2. While Martha locks herself in with Mary, she asks Tom to do what outside?

3. How does Price feel about helping his drunk teacher Tom Crick once they are out on the street outside the pub?

4. What is NOT a positive personality trait associated with phlegm, and one notably absent from most of the major characters of the novel?

5. Where does the old Mary Crick claim she got her child without being pregnant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Religion is not an overt topic in Graham Swift's novel Waterland, but it certainly recurs as a theme. In particular, Tom Crick discusses religion in respect to two women: Gildsey's patron saint Gunnhilda and Tom's wife Mary. Using specifics and quotes from the novel, retrace the religious development those two women undergo in the novel and compare and contrast them.

Essay Topic 2

Carefully consider the character of Ernest Atkinson in Graham Swift's novel Waterland. Trace the mistakes he makes that lead to his social, political, and financial decline in Gildsey and that cause catastrophe for his descendants. Finally, analyze what Ernest's life might symbolize in Tom Crick's narrative about the Fens and its people.

Essay Topic 3

Carefully consider the relationship between the characters Tom Crick and Mary Metcalf in Graham Swift's novel Waterland. Using specifics from the novel, recount the ups and downs of their relationship. What in Tom's and Mary's personalities leads to how their relationship plays out? Finally, analyze what the significance of story-telling (or its absence) is for their relationship.

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