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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. Which character is NOT named when Francescho lists her top three most influential artists?

2. Barto called his therapeutic method "the Rite of" (127) whom?

3. How many years before Francescho's father's death did she officially leave her "father's tutelage" (45)?

4. What term did the "infidel" (84) stranger use to ask Francesco for a belt before she provided him with a length of rope?

5. Francescho's resentment toward Cosmo cools only when she calls to mind how many lessons she had learned from him?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way is the novel How to Be Both a piece of interactive fiction?

2. For what reason did the protagonist of Eyes have need of a new name?

3. What crime did Cosmo likely commit the night after his first encounter with Francescho?

4. What quality does Francescho "sense" is "central to" the "nature" (84) of the young woman whom she observes throughout the narrative?

5. With whom had Francescho spent her final moments and what is revealed to be the fate of this character?

6. What insights does Francescho provide into the subversive elements of her artwork?

7. Describe Francescho's reaction to an aspect of technology in the modern world.

8. What evidence does Francescho provide for her claim that there were other women in Renaissance-era Italy who posed as men in order to pursue careers in art?

9. Name two themes contained in one quote within the novel's Epigraph section.

10. What is "the rite of Mnemosyne" (127) and who proposed its use to Francescho?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss how and why Smith instills three different humanist messages into the narrative of How to Be Both.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Smith’s use of metaphor, simile, imagery, and other literary devices as a means to send particular thematic messages within the narrative of How to Be Both.

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the interplay between the resolution of How to Be Both and one of the novel's main messages. How does Smith make connections between these elements and how does their juxtaposition help get across one main message of the novel?

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