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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. For how many weeks will Eli and Ben be gone on the road trip to the California coast?

2. By the time Chapter Four opens, Henry's anxiety has grown to the point where he is washing Iris with what object?

3. Lizzie officially meets the handsome man from the bus when they run into one another in what location?

4. Lizzie recalls pleading with Henry not to seek help with his addiction at what type of facility?

5. What show does Lizzie put on for Henry in Chapter Four, calling it a "soothing hour of television" (155)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the keys featured in Chapter Three symbolize?

2. To which historical event does Lizzie compare the U.S. presidential election of 2016 and why?

3. How does Ben feel about the results of the election and how does Offill provide this information to the reader?

4. What detail does Henry share with Lizzie in Chapter Four that compels her to go to Ben with her concerns?

5. What solution does Lizzie devise in response to Henry's problem, as revealed in Chapter Six?

6. What purpose does Offill have in mind when including the detail that Catherine always gets home from work at seven in the evening?

7. For what reason does Offill allude to C.S. Lewis's novel Prince Caspian in Chapter Four?

8. For what reason does Lizzie stay home during the three weeks of Ben and Eli's absence in Chapter Four?

9. In what kind of dwelling do Ben and Catherine live and what is the significance of this fact?

10. What is "milling" (129) in the context of the field called Disaster Psychology?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine Offill’s use of characterization methods to portray Lizzie’s brother Henry within the narrative. What effects do these characterization methods have on the themes and messages inherent in Weather: A Novel?

Essay Topic 2

Offill begins the text with an excerpt from a 17th-century town meeting in a small Connecticut settlement. Explain how this poem excerpt relates to Weather: A Novel and how it reflects the text’s themes.

Essay Topic 3

Examine the effects of stress on the novel's characters and the coping methods each character uses to deal with emotional turmoil. Which characters' methods are effective, which are ineffective, and how do these varying levels of efficiency affect the messages sent by Weather: A Novel within the text?

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