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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How has the narrator and Gin's relationship changed by the end of the summer?
(a) Gin cries whenever the narrator tries to kiss her.
(b) The narrator has begun to notice other girls in his neighborhood.
(c) They argue constantly about trivial things.
(d) Gin is not comfortable being alone with the narrator.

2. On the night when he realizes that their relationship is over, what does the narrator realize he really wants from Gin?
(a) For her to get over the incident on the beach.
(b) For her to stay away from him.
(c) For her to apologize to him.
(d) For her to like him again.

3. What does the narrator see on the street when he is leaving Gin's building on the night of the beach incident?
(a) Beach sand.
(b) His underwear.
(c) Gin's blanket.
(d) A condom.

4. In what sense is the drowned woman also still constantly in the narrator's thoughts?
(a) He sees her as a symbol of his own recklessness.
(b) He constantly imagines her there beside Gin.
(c) He imagines that every man he sees could be her killer.
(d) He begins collecting newspaper articles about drownings.

5. In the story's opening, what details are related to the passage of time?
(a) Grass, leaves, and snow.
(b) Light and darkness.
(c) The condition of the Rambler and the rosary.
(d) Gin's bed and their parents' cars.

Short Answer Questions

1. What mood do the diction and details included in the scene where the police leave their cars and enter the water create?

2. On page 234, which of the following terms does the narrator use to describe the sunset?

3. In Gin's dream about the beach, why has the narrator left her alone?

4. Why does the narrator say that Lake Michigan "became" the Pacific Ocean (235)?

5. On page 243, there is a reference to "Casanova." Why is this historical figure mentioned?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the inclusion of details about the House of Dong intended to convey?

2. What messages about gender, sex, and adulthood are being conveyed in the phrase "entered you as if passing through a gateway into the rest of my life," which the narrator uses to describe his beliefs about what is happening on the beach that night?

3. What scenario does Gin keep thinking about after the night on Oak Street Beach?

4. What does Gin dream about a baby in the water, and what does she believe her dream means?

5. Where are some of the places listed in the poem's opening paragraph, and how do they convey the couple's youth?

6. When the narrator and Gin are on the beach, what does the narrator imagine the people along the Gold Coast doing, and what thematic ideas does his description convey?

7. What is the rhetorical purpose of the narrator's comments about the "bloodless way in which a young man discards his own virginity" (235)?

8. How is the From Here to Eternity love scene evoked ironically when the narrator and Gin are on the beach?

9. What is foreshadowed by the page 233 description of their "lover's lane"?

10. On the night in the lover's lane toward the end of the story, what does the narrator realize about his relationship with Gin?

(see the answer keys)

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