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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. In "Pretty Nancy," what does Joan say Nancy's father did for work?
2. What are Didion and the TV crew there to observe Nancy doing in "Pretty Nancy"?
3. One of the meeting attendees, Frank L., has been going to meetings for six years and on the night Joan attended had not placed a bet in how long?
4. What does Didion say she has never read in an underground paper in "Alicia and the Underground Press"?
5. In "Alicia and the Underground Press," what does Didion feel a reader can be sure of when the writer allows their bias to exist?
Short Essay Questions
1. What happened when Joan wrote a paper for one of her friends at Stanford? What was the paper about? What grade did he get? What grade did she get?
2. What example does Joan use to express how much more difficult things have gotten regarding parents trying to ensure their children get into their college of choice?
3. What do the tour guides in "A Trip to Xandadu" say about Hearsts sons?
4. What does Didion says about the way Alicia writers her opinion piece about Ann Arbor in "Alicia"?
5. How does Didion describe the tone of the tour guides in "A Trip to Xanadu"?
6. In "A Trip to Xanadu," what is the castle people could see from Highway 1 and who built it?
7. What does Didion say about objectivity in "Alicia and the Underground Press"?
8. What happened to Joan on April 25, 1952 in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice" and how did she react?
9. Where is Joan Didion in her essay "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles" (38)?
10. Why does Didion say that the so-called underground papers she discusses in "Alicia" are not really underground?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Write an essay analyzing narrative voice in Joan Didion’s Let Me Tell You What I Mean. Choose a 2 - 3 essays to use as an example of Didion's narrative voice. Include thoughts on how the narrative voice effectively conveys the themes in each story.
Essay Topic 2
Write an essay analyzing the symbolic significance of San Simeon in "A Trip To Xanadu." What did it mean to Joan as a child? How did it impact her life? What did it mean to others? What was it like for her and her niece to see it in person?
Essay Topic 3
Write an essay analyzing Didion's relationship with the written word. Use the following stories as reference: "Alicia and the Underground Press," "Why I Write," "Telling Stories," and "Last Words." Consider examples that show Didion's level of respect for the written word as well as her respect for other writers. Also, include why Didion herself writes and how she sees herself as a writer.
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This section contains 841 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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