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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 is the name of the sitcom starring Marlowe that Plum says she used to watch as a little girl?

2. What object does Plum steal from Verena's desk just before she flees from The Calliope House in her new white poplin dress?

3. As she leaves Dr. Ahmad's office, Plum thinks to herself that she will look like which monster after all of her surgeries?

4. When Plum emerges from her clothes-shopping trip in her new red dress, she says that for the first time, she does not mind doing what?

5. What is the name of Marlowe's son?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Plum mean when she says, "After years of not fighting back, I was coiled like a snake" (233)?

2. To what television show is Plum alluding when she enters Victoria Secret and knows that she is "raising eyebrows" (234)?

3. In what way is Plum already familiar with Marlowe before she meets her at Cafe Rose?

4. What personal advice does Julia offer to Plum during their conversation in Plum's bedroom and how does Plum react?

5. When Plum dreams that she has lost a lot of weight by using Dabsitaf, what is the significance of her dream?

6. What is the author's purpose for including the reporter Cheryl Crane-Murphy's remark, "As a committed Christian, it pains me to admit that I feel nothing but glee at the death of these pigs" (155)?

7. How does the author employ foreshadowing within the passage when Kitty calls Plum at home and asks her to come to Austen Media?

8. What is the final step of the New Baptist Plan?

9. What is the significance of Plum's ultrasound image?

10. What is ironic about Kitty's insistence that "all girls are beautiful" (241)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the novel's message concerning the link between mental and physical health?

Essay Topic 2

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Sarai Walker's novel Dietland. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the book.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's choice to tell the story of Dietland using the first-person point of view. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what is the author's intended effect on the reader?

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