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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. What job does Joan take after high school?

2. Who does Joan want to see to discover more about how her mother died?

3. How does Joan react after her father tells her about her mother's death?

4. What performance does Joan remember?

5. Who is Joan named after?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Arthur's state of mind in Chapter 20.

2. How does Arthur make it easy for Joan to continue to lie to him?

3. Why does Joan bury her clothes?

4. Describe Joan's search for a fresh approach to her writing.

5. How does Joan see her father differently after she returns home for the funeral?

6. How does Joan change after becoming willing to publish Lady Oracle under her own name?

7. Explain why Joan does not tell her husband Arthur that she writes Costume Gothic novels.

8. Describe Leda Sprott's appearance and her significance at Joan's wedding.

9. How does Joan begin to take on a new identity after leaving home?

10. Describe Joan Foster's state of mind in Chapter 1.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the end of Lady Oracle, Joan says she will stop writing romance novels and instead write Science Fiction. Why do you think Joan wants to stop writing romances? Do you think writing romances contributes to Joan's dishonesty? Would she write a good Science Fiction tale? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Joan's actions that show her as a woman who is independent but also submissive to the men in her life. When she leaves her double life behind, how does she begin to show that she is becoming more assertive?

Essay Topic 3

Lady Oracle was published in 1976. How does Joan's life as a woman reflect the attitudes of that time? Compare her life as a wife to her life as a romance novelist. Which allows her to move beyond traditional roles? Do you think she is a character who is ahead of her time?

(see the answer keys)

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