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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. In the story's opening, what details are related to the characters' youth?
2. What is the description of the condom springing from the narrator's fingers "like a spring from a clock" (235) meant to convey?
3. Which detail of the narrator's description of their kisses indicates the passage of time?
4. What does Gin tell the narrator she is afraid of when they are lying on the beach together?
5. What repetition technique is used in the story's opening paragraph?
Short Essay Questions
1. What is the rhetorical purpose of the narrator's comments about the "bloodless way in which a young man discards his own virginity" (235)?
2. What point about the relationship between men and women is made by the details the narrator observes on his train ride home after the night at Oak Street Beach?
3. What does the narrator say might have happened if the dead woman had washed up beside them while he and Gin were trying to have sex on the beach, and why is Gin so offended?
4. What scenario does Gin keep thinking about after the night on Oak Street Beach?
5. What does Gin dream about a baby in the water, and what does she believe her dream means?
6. What is the inclusion of details about the House of Dong intended to convey?
7. 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?
8. On page 233, the narrator describes the girlfriend's mother's car as having "a rosary twined [around] the rearview mirror like a beaded, black snake with silver, cruciform fangs." Describe the tone of this image and explain how it is related to the narrator's later description of unbuttoning his girlfriend's shirt.
9. In what sense does the narrator mean that, after the night on Oak Street Beach, the dead woman was always "with" him and Gin?
10. How is the From Here to Eternity love scene evoked ironically when the narrator and Gin are on the beach?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
In interviews, Dybek has mentioned that "We Didn't" began as a poem. He believes that it still occupies a prose space that is very close to the border of becoming poetry. Write an essay that analyzes the lyric nature of "We Didn't." How is it created, and what purpose does it serve? Support your assertions with evidence from the text.
Essay Topic 2
Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the narrator's depiction of the female body. How does his language reveal his attitudes about women and their bodies? How does this attitude toward women's bodies characterize the narrator? Use quoted textual evidence to support your ideas.
Essay Topic 3
Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the role of comic techniques in "We Didn't." Identify the techniques that are used as you offer your ideas about the purpose of including humorous moments in the story. Use quoted textual evidence to support your assertions.
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This section contains 1,284 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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