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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. Where did Helen plan to go after Vassar?

2. How does Katrina characterize her life?

3. What does Francis imagine when Rosskam stops his wagon in Chapter 4?

4. How does the narrator characterize Rosskam?

5. Who is remembered on All Saints Day?

Short Essay Questions

1. What memories does Rosskam’s sex talk evoke for Francis?

2. What was Francis’ mother’s relationship with Katrina Daugherty like?

3. Describe Rosskam and his environment.

4. Explain the meaning of the attention Rosskam draws to Francis’ hands.

5. How did Helen’s father’s death change her life?

6. How does Francis characterize the difference between Annie’s kiss and Katrina’s?

7. What prompts Francis to get down from Rosskam’s wagon and quit for the day?

8. Who was Katrina Daugherty and what was her role in Francis’ life?

9. How does Helen feel about her life, when she is summing it up as she dies?

10. How did Helen’s mother and brother cheat her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

Essay Topic 2

When is Ironweed most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 3

The American novel is typically centered on a character who believes in a fundamental innocence, and goes into the world to have experiences and find him or herself—but Ironweed is centered on Francis’ guilt over any number of things. How does Ironweed fit in the American canon?

(see the answer keys)

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