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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. How does Phillip feel about the furnishings in his house?

2. Six weeks after the weekend visit, why do Phillip's sisters call?

3. What does Phillip realize on his trip home to Memphis?

4. Who does Phillip see on the other side of the restaurant?

5. When Phillip sees his father for the weekend getaway, how does Mr. Carver look?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 10, how does Lewis Shackleford see his friend, George Carver? What traits does he admire in his friend?

2. In Chapter 9, Phillip explains the difference between his father and Alex Mercer as an important factor in their friendship. What is this difference?

3. In Chapter 9, Phillip visits Holly in her apartment in the hopes of a reconciliation. What do the two of them talk about for the first time openly and honestly? What has happened in Holly's life during their separation?

4. During the drive from the church to Mr. Carver's home in Chapter 8, Phillip begins thinking of what his father might do next. What things does he think are possible? Why does he believe his father might do any of them?

5. In Chapter 7, Phillip compares the life he knows in his father's house in Memphis and his apartment in New York. How do the two residences differ? How does Phillip feel about the contents of his family home in Memphis and the contents of his apartment?

6. In Chapter 8, Alex, Phillip and Father pull up to the house from the church. What is happening as they arrive? Why?

7. While George Carver and his wife are in St, Louis for business, what happens to the Mr. Shackleford's company? How does Mr. Carver react to this news?

8. In Chapter 9, both Phillip and Holly begin to understand their fathers and see them as people. Holly encourages them both to go beyond forgiveness and forgetting and aspire to true understanding. How does Phillip remember his father's life growing up?

9. In Chapter 12, Phillip gives the four leaf clover pendant to Holly. How does she respond? What does Phillip know from her response?

10. In Chapter 8, Betsy and Josephine have prepared a bed for Phillip in their father's study. However, Phillip does not stay. He leaves his father and sisters and returns to New York. Why does he not remain and defend his father against his sisters? Why does Phillip leave so hastily?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the opening of the novel, Phillip speaks of the danger of middle aged children interfering with their widowed fathers' dating. How does this theme manifest itself in the novel? Discuss the ironic twist on this theme that becomes a central thread of the novel.

Essay Topic 2

The novel is not written in straight chronological time. How does the author deal with the element of time in the novel? Is it effective?

Essay Topic 3

The three surviving Carver children never marry. Discuss each character's attempt at marriage and how the attempts are foiled by Father. What kind of men do Betsy and Josephine choose? How are they similar? How are they different? How do these men both fit into the social character of the Carver family?

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