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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 Deanna say to convince Theresa to publish the column?

2. What is the nature of the relationship between Theresa and Deanna?

3. What does the person want who called Garrett the day following his first date with Theresa?

4. What is Garrett not bothered about while on his second date with Theresa?

5. In Chapter 1, on a cold December day, where does Theresa Osborne arrive?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Garrett and Theresa spend lunch and the afternoon?

2. What are Garrett feelings after inviting Theresa on board his boat?

3. What is on Garrett's mind while showing Theresa the boat?

4. How does Theresa find out about the third message?

5. Why did Theresa divorce David and what happened with him afterward?

6. Which of Theresa's greatest fears does Garrett relieve in the restaurant?

7. How did Garrett and Catherine meet?

8. How long does it take for Deanna to convince Theresa to publish the message?

9. Why does Theresa want to put everything aside after finding the second message?

10. Why was Theresa in Cape Cod during the summer prior to the beginning of the story?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare Theresa's loss of intimacy with Garrett's loss of Catherine. Discuss how loss affects their characters and brings them together. Provide examples from the book to support your discussion.

Essay Topic 2

The relationship between Garrett and Theresa goes quickly from a casual acquaintance to an intimate relationship. Why do you think Garrett, while still deeply in love with his late wife, chose to move so quickly? Make a parallel between Catherine and Theresa and the way both women went on the same date on the boat, using references from the text to support your discussion.

Essay Topic 3

Setting can deepen the story line and help deepen your characters' traits. In the novel, "A Message in a Bottle," the sailboat acts as one of the settings in the story and is important to many major scenes in the novel. Define setting in your essay and then discuss how it contributes to the story and the character development. What does the sailboat represent in "Message in a Bottle?" Why does the sailboat's destruction have importance in the novel? Provide a few examples from the story to help support your statements.

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