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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Thérèse do with the package?

2. What are the workmen doing when they find a shallow grave with a heap of bones?

3. At whom is Baptiste angry?

4. What does Léonie do when she's feeling the way she is at the moment?

5. What word do both women call out simultaneously as Léonie leaves the room?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Chapters 18 and 19 both obliquely refer to the rape of Antoinette by a German soldier during WWII. There are a number of references throughout the text that implies that Thérèse, and perhaps even Léonie is a product of this rape. Answer the following questions in a well-developed essay using examples from the book as well as personal experience:

1. List and discuss the references throughout the novel that suggests that Antoinette is raped by a German soldier. Include dreams, conversations, and any other sources. What is your interpretation of the textual evidence?

2. Discuss the references that suggest that Thérèse is a product of the rape. Are there references that imply that Léonie is not only Thérèse's sister, but her twin and is a product of the same rape? Find those references also. What do you believe about the parentage of the two girls? Support your statements with specific textual references.

3. Breasts are an obvious symbol of maternity in that women breastfeed their children. Discuss the implications of Antoinette's breast cancer and her role as a mother juxtaposed next to the fact that she is raped.

Essay Topic 2

In chapter 8, Léonie says she will kill Thérèse if she brings up anything else about the past. Each woman remembers the past differently. Memory is a tricky thing, and often several people who witness the same event will later relate the details differently. . Answer the following questions in a well-developed essay using examples from the book as well as personal experience:

1. How do Thérèse and Léonie's memories differ about their childhood as they are back together as adults? Give specific examples.

2. Have you ever recounted an event in your life only to have a parent, sibling or other person say "that's not at all how it happened"? How did you feel about being challenged/corrected? Do you think your memory of the past is reliable? Why or why not.

3. When you think about your very young childhood, how many of your memories do you think you actually recall and how many of them are events that an adult related to you and you have incorporated into your own set of memories? Discuss a couple of those and evaluate them for accuracy.

Essay Topic 3

In chapter 3, Thérèse has left the monastery after being behind its walls for about twenty years. She feels disoriented and confused at life in the "real" world. Answer the following questions in a well-developed essay using examples from the book as well as personal experience:

1. How long do you think it will take Thérèse to adjust to the differences between a cloistered life and life among a diversity of people and places?

2. Why do you think Thérèse chose to close herself off from the "real" world? Are her motivations strictly spiritual? If she is alive after the ending of this story, do you think she will go back to the cloistered life? Why or why not?

3. Many men and women confined in a penal system for any duration of more than a few years find that they cannot adjust to "life on the outside," and often end up back in prison. Some even commit a crime in order to go back to prison. Why do you think this happens? Is there any way to help any person who has been isolated, whether in a penal system or otherwise, to adjust to a more public life? Explain.

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