View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Nora find has happened at The Sentinel office when she visits it in town?

2. What does Nora decide to write a letter in The Sentinel About?

3. Who does Lurie originally steal the nazar from?

4. Who is Nora's mother?

5. What does Lurie say about camel hair?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kind of disposition does Lurie say camels would not suit?

2. What does Donovan say when Lurie asks his ghost why he left him behind?

3. In Part I, what does Lurie wish he could remember his father talking about more than anything else?

4. What power does Josie claim to have that Nora is skeptical about?

5. Why does Nora choose to sign her rebuttal letter to The Sentinel from Ellen Francis?

6. What errand is Emmett very late returning from in Part II?

7. What one word does Emmett question Nora's use of in her rebuttal letter she wants him to print in The Sentinel?

8. What does Lurie steal on the ship he takes cover on whose owner he later bumps into in Part I?

9. What serious crime does Lurie commit in Part One that gets Marshal John Berger searching for him?

10. What is Hobb's "want" that Lurie is compelled to fulfill?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing the symbolism of Donovan's canteen, and of the visions Lurie sees in it. Cite specific references to the text to support your answers.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing Obreht's choice to write some of Lurie's sections from a first-person perspective, with Lurie addressing his camel, Burke, directly. How does this decision affect the reader's experience?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay describing the role that supernatural forces and entities like fortune-telling, ghosts, and seances play in the plot of this novel.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 616 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample