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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 type of mood does Irma promise to create at dinner for Striker in chapter 21?

2. Who offers to help Michael and Gina with baby Wanda?

3. What were Irma and her daughter doing the day the Germans came and took them away?

4. What does Gina destroy shortly before the birth of her daughter?

5. What type of jewelry does Striker notice Rudy wearing at the their initial meeting?

Short Essay Questions

1. What symbolic item is mentioned in chapter 18 that is related to a similar item symbolically important to Wanda Schultz?

2. Why is Michael forced to quit college after marrying Gina?

3. How does Wanda's knowledge of her parents' relationship compare with what Striker has revealed to the reader in part two of the novel?

4. How does Striker feel about religion, as the reader learns in chapter 21?

5. Why does Michael leave his daughter and go in search of his missing wife in chapter 19?

6. What is Yeats and what does it stand for in Striker's life?

7. In the beginning of Part Two, how does the narration change?

8. How does Striker celebrate Easter in chapter 22?

9. How does the author draw parallels between Striker and Irma concerning their painful pasts?

10. What character seems to tell Striker how he can pull Irma out of her depression in chapter 21?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does Margaret tell Wanda about the collection her father built during World War II? What proof does Margaret have to back up her story? How does Wanda react to this story? How does Margaret feel about this story? What is Margaret's initial reaction to these items? How does this story help Wanda make the decision to begin speaking again and to become a part of Margaret's household again? What does Margaret begin doing with the shards of the broken items? How does this change the lives of everyone in Margaret's house?

Essay Topic 2

Who is Irma Kosminsky? How does she become acquainted with Michael? Why does Michael initially refuse to take her Hawaiian shirt? What happens to cause Michael to take the shirts after all? What is the nature of the relationship between Michael and Irma? Why does this relationship change the way in which Michael has recently been living his life? Is this a good change? Where does the reader suspect this relationship is headed? How does the author foreshadow the end of this relationship?

Essay Topic 3

Who is Stephen? How does Margaret feel about him? Why did their relationship end? What was the cause? What role does Stephen play in Margaret's life now? What is Margaret's reaction when the doctor wants to call Stephen upon learning of Margaret's brain tumor? Why does Stephen's new wife call Margaret later in the novel? What does she want? What does she threaten to tell Stephen? How does Margaret react to the threat? What does Stephen say to Margaret after this threat is made good?

(see the answer keys)

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