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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. The issue of Sports Illustrated through which Evvie glances in Fall: Chapter 1 contains a story about a baseball player from which team?

2. Evvie reveals that she took what action in high school in order to ensure that Tim would be valedictorian?

3. What is Evvie's legal first name?

4. What is the name of Andy's youngest daughter?

5. About how much time has passed between the end of the prologue and the beginning of Fall: Chapter 1?

Short Essay Questions

1. Which comment of Frank's makes Evvie furious during Thanksgiving dinner and why?

2. What is the "one thing" (54) Dean claims to have done seriously ever since the age of ten?

3. What is the history of the friendship between Dean and Andy?

4. What major secret is Evvie keeping from her best friend Andy?

5. What object does Evvie place on the mantel just before she opens the door to meet Dean and what is the object's significance?

6. When Dean expresses his appreciation to Evvie at the end of Fall: Chapter 5, what two specific elements does he name?

7. What do Evvie's set of dishes with the yellow flowers on them symbolize?

8. What agreement do Evvie and Dean make at the end of Fall: Chapter 4?

9. Name and discuss one coping mechanism Evvie used to make it through her days during her marriage to Tim.

10. Discuss an instance when Holmes uses a literary device to comment on the nature of youth.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Trace the characterization arc of Evvie’s character throughout the novel Evvie Drake Starts Over. Discuss whether Evvie is a round or flat character and whether she is a static or dynamic character.

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 Holmes’s novel Evvie Drake Starts Over. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

What messages does Holmes send about domestic violence in Evvie Drake Starts Over and what scenarios are employed in order to send these messages to the reader?

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