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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 does the wife remember the husband saying to her a few months ago about the last gift he had given her?

2. Where is Cam when he receives a note from Mia?

3. What does Allie find in the spare bedroom at Jamie's house?

4. Why did Jamie take measurements of Maggie before she got sick?

5. Who comes to the flower shop and tells Cam there is trouble at the station?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Mia tell Cam as they are cleaning up the pictures she spilled in the bedroom?

2. Why is euthanasia not a good defense for Jamie's trial?

3. What does Allie offer to do while Jamie goes into the police station with Cam after he confesses to murder?

4. Why does Allie envy Maggie?

5. What does Angus tell Cam when Cam asks if he could stay in Carrymuir while Angus goes back to Wheelock and becomes clan chief?

6. Why does Jamie dislike the prosecutor in his case?

7. What is Mia's strongest childhood memory?

8. What surprising information does Cam learn from the private detective?

9. What kind of wife is Allie to Cam?

10. Why does Graham's excitement about Jamie's case diminish after he talks to Jamie?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why does Picoult begin the novel with these lines from a William Carlos Williams poem: "What power has love but forgiveness?/ In other words/ by its intervention/ what has been done/ can be undone./ What good is it otherwise?" What is the significance of these words to the plot and themes of Mercy? What is the difference between forgiveness and mercy?

Essay Topic 2

How is Mercy a story of the tests that challenge people every day and the mistakes that define a life?

Essay Topic 3

What role does betrayal play in the novel Mercy?

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This section contains 638 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample