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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. How does Vanessa’s mother, Jan, refer to Strane on page 363?

2. According to Strane on page 304, what did the experience with Vanessa brand him as?

3. Where is the site of Strane’s death, as revealed on page 198?

4. What does Strane reveal about Plough’s wife on page 342?

5. What does Vanessa do while Strane is sleeping on page 306?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Vanessa learn from Jenny in the spring of 2002?

2. How does the literature in Vanessa’s gothic seminar parallel her real life?

3. How does Vanessa rationalize Strane’s actions on page 260?

4. How does Strane die? How does he appear to Vanessa?

5. How is Vanessa’s mother haunted by the past, as revealed by Jan Wye on page 363?

6. Why does Strane send Vanessa a packet of documents? Of what is he trying to remind her, as he explains on page 327? What does he want to achieve?

7. Who is Henry Plough? How does Vanessa compare him to Strane on page 272?

8. Who is Bridget? Describe her relationship with Vanessa.

9. Why does Vanessa feel a need to see Strane, as explained on page 267? What does she get from it? How is this adoration function like a drug?

10. How does Vanessa’s relationship with Strane change after her graduation from college? To what can the reader attribute such change?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay defining victimhood from the perspective of Vanessa. What does it mean to be a victim, according to Vanessa? How do the choices she makes reflect these values?

Essay Topic 2

While teaching a lesson on Longfellow, Strane remarks that “the world is made of endlessly intersecting stories, each one valid and true” (21). How does the novel support or refute this claim?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the author’s choice to tell this story by using the first-person perspective. How does viewing the action through a first-person perspective affect the story? How would the novel change if the story was told through the third person?

(see the answer keys)

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