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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 Vic kill De Lisle?

2. Where do Vic and Melinda go on the July Fourth weekend?

3. How old is Victor Van Allen?

4. What instrument does Melinda often play?

5. Who is Trixie's best friend?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Vic try to stop Melinda's affair with De Lisle?

2. What does Vic think of Melinda's piano playing?

3. Who does most of the housework in the Van Allen household, and why?

4. In Part II, what shatters the rumor Vic told about himself?

5. What is Vic's reputation in Little Wesley?

6. What is Horace Meller's attitude to the rumor Vic spread about himself?

7. What does Vic tell Mr. Nash in Part I that alarms Nash?

8. What had Vic hoped might change with his spreading a bad rumor about himself?

9. How does Vic realize Melinda is seeing Charley De Lisle?

10. How does Trixie generally react to Melinda's men she is having affairs with?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Highsmith handle the topic of Vic's lack of guilt after his killings? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

How does Highsmith handle the topic, overall, of deception? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

In general, how does Vic react to his wife Melinda's infidelities, and how does Highsmith communicate the unorthodox nature of their relationship to the reader? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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