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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 narrator say provided Temple’s mother Dee’s “one authentic encounter with the supernatural” (139)?

2. Where does the narrator say Karen’s “common-sensical, matter-of-fact way of approaching things” comes from (160)?

3. Which poet previously owned the jacket Temple has borrowed from Byrdie?

4. What does the narrator say is the ideal student like at UVA?

5. Where does Temple go to take refuge when Flea and Karen arouse him?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Lomax and Flea react when Meg tells them that she is really Lee Fleming’s wife?

2. What is the sheltering sky, and what does it mean to Temple?

3. How does Karen end up involved deciphering Temple’s love letters?

4. What does Dee say about race and cooking, when she visits Temple and Dee at UVA?

5. What writing advice does Luke give Meg?

6. Why is Meg more afraid than comforted when she meets Diane, whom she identifies as another lesbian?

7. What is the career opportunity that opens up for Meg when Lomax meets the man known as “the Seal” (116)?

8. How do Temple and Karen end up going to UVA?

9. Why is the case of the drug bust frustrating for the district attorney?

10. How do Byrdie and Mike end up talking with the police after the party?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Who is the audience for Mislaid? What is the ideal reader for Mislaid likely to think about the book’s main topics? How does this book try to affect the reader? What is it trying to teach him or her, or get him or her to do?

Essay Topic 2

To what extent is Mislaid a novel about class? How does class figure in Mislaid, and how do characters like Lee and Peggy engage with the concept of class? Do they change relative to the ideas they start with, or do they change their ideas?

Essay Topic 3

Where is the climax of this book? Are there different climaxes? What questions does each climax resolve? What questions does each climax leave unanswered?

(see the answer keys)

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