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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. What can the author's grief and memories never achieve?

2. What experience helps the author make a decision about God's nature?

3. In Chapter Three, what is the author finally able to do?

4. Thinking so much about his grief causes the author to doubt what?

5. Against what were the author's records written?

Short Essay Questions

1. What signs are there that Lewis is beginning to come out of his depression?

2. What are Lewis's reflections about images in the fourth chapter?

3. In addition to a sword, what other metaphor does Lewis use to describe H. to establish a balanced view?

4. What does Lewis mean when he writes that he can believe that God is a vet? Conversely, how is it difficult for Lewis to think of God as a vet?

5. What does Lewis write that his notes ultimately have been about?

6. What does Lewis mean when he writes about a house of cards?

7. For Lewis, why is a good God as formidable as God, the Cosmic Sadist? Describe the differences between the two ideas.

8. In what way does Lewis's previous acceptance of death and mourning alter with H.'s death?

9. In Chapter Three, what does Lewis come to see about his love for H. and his faith in God?

10. At the beginning of Chapter Three, when does Lewis acknowledge that he does not think about H.? What is life like when Lewis is not thinking about H.?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter Two, Lewis describes an encounter with a man whom Lewis had not seen for a long time. Discuss the feelings and realizations Lewis experienced through his encounter with this man. How does Lewis describe his realization to the reader, and why might he choose that method to describe his realization?

Essay Topic 2

Lewis describes an encounter with a man with a hoe and a watering can who was preparing to tend to the man's mother's grave. Lewis is "horrified" by the encounter, which displays Lewis's consistent desire to penetrate to the reality of the death of H. and the reality of God.

1) Discuss what it is about the man with the hoe that caused Lewis to be so troubled. Was it something the man said or did?

2) What does Lewis reflect is better; tending to a grave and letting that be one's sense of reality about the deceased, or to pass by symbols and seek to do without the person? Explain what Lewis is trying to work out.

Essay Topic 3

After a long period of feeling left outside a locked door, of feeling that God was unresponsive, Lewis begins to sense God's presence on the other side of the door and that the door is unlocked.

1) Discuss the idea behind the biblical promise cited by Lewis, "Knock and the door shall be opened." What does that mean for Lewis and his interaction with God? What does Lewis ask that the phrase might mean?

2) Discuss the other quote to which Lewis refers in Chapter Three, "To him that hath shall be given." What does that phrase mean to Lewis?

3) What, if any, value do either or both of these quotes have for those who grieve?

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