View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Zikora tell Kwame on the night they break up?

2. At what event did Zikora first meet her baby's father?

3. What did Zikora's mother say when her husband's second wife offered them fish and plantains when they came to visit the new baby?

4. How does the narrator's mother respond to her expression of pain during labor?

5. How old was Zikora when her father married a second wife?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what ways did Kwame seem different than most successful, Black men Zikora knew?

2. Where is the narrator at the start of "Zikora: A Short Story," why, and what relative is with her?

3. Why does Kwame's reaction to Zikora's pregnancy surprise her?

4. What is the dynamic between mother and daughter at the beginning of "Zikora: A Short Story"?

5. Who does Zikora think of when she becomes so tired she feels like she could die right there, and what happened to this person?

6. How does Zikora interact with Dr. K when he first appears in the story and she tells him something must be wrong?

7. What does Zikora feel toward the nurse after she raises her eyebrows when Zikora's mother refuses to help keep her still for the epidural?

8. Why does Zikora feel she is disgracing her mother in the labor room?

9. How is Zikora's cousin Mmiliaku's husband Emmanuel described?

10. What happened when Zikora was nine and went to see Aunty Nwanneka's new son, Ugonna?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay examining the ending of “Zikora: A Short Story.” How did the ending impact your understanding of the story? Do you think the ending was effective? What might the author have done differently?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay comparing ZIkora and Kwame's relationship to Mmiliaku and Emmanuel's relationship. How are they similar of different and why?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay exploring "Zikora: A Short Story" through a feminist lens. What scenes or memories speak to the female experience?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 677 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample