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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 many brothers does Sissie have?

2. Looking at her father from far away, whom does Sissie believe he looks like?

3. Who becomes angry with a woman when she offers something to Sissie during the first summer?

4. What view does Sissie have of Frank?

5. How old is Sissie in the first summer detailed in the story?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Sissie compare her father to other men?

2. Why does Sissie view her brief encounter with the mysterious man as a game?

3. How does the writer make the summer season very apparent in the text in Part 2?

4. What is one specific example from Part 2 of the novel's setting being a rural one?

5. Describe the narrator's clarity in the first part of the story.

6. How does Sissie compare the bar at the end of the book to the same bar years earlier?

7. In what way does Sissie compare herself to her mother? How does she think they are different?

8. What makes Sissie vulnerable?

9. Describe the island that Sissie and Jerry explore.

10. What foreshadowing is present in the first part of the story, and what is foreshadowed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the hierarchy of the sexes is the book? What are the expectations of women? What are the expectations of men? How does this relate to Sissie?

Essay Topic 2

Who or what is the protagonist in "Four Summers"? Why? Who or what is the antagonist in "Four Summers" and how does the reader know this? What role do both the protagonist and antagonist play in the story?

Essay Topic 3

Would you consider distrust to be a theme in the book? Who is Sissie distrustful of? Why?

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