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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 Melanie end up coming to a church service at Jean's church?

2. What does the palm reader tell Jean one year at the fair?

3. What idea from the sermon she heard at the special conference had the biggest impact on Jean?

4. What is the moral of the story of the prince and the woman?

5. How can Sundays at the house where Jean grew up best be described?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain why this statement is relevant to Jean's predicament at school: "What constitutes a problem is not the thing, or the environment where we find the thing, but the conjunction of the two."

2. What does the perfect girl the prince finds tell him?

3. Why does Jean's mother tell Jean the story of her and Pierre? What does she hope to accomplish?

4. What kinds of stories does Jean's mother tell her while the walk on Sundays? Give some examples.

5. Describe the dream Jean has again and again about marriage.

6. What happened in sewing class when the class worked on cross stitching projects?

7. What happens when Jean tries to tell her mother that she is going deaf?

8. How does her mother tell the story of Jean's adoption?

9. Describe the incident of the mac and its replacement.

10. Who does Jean eventually get a Saturday job from? What does she do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The action of the novel happens in a community of Pentecostal Evangelists, and the conflict in the story is caused by their beliefs.

Part 1. Who are the Pentecostal Evangelists, and what do they believe in?

Part 2. Have they changed since the 1960s when this story took place?

Part 3. What would it be like to be raised in such a community?

Essay Topic 2

The author frequently uses stories, often ones that sound like parables, to make her points in her story.

Part 1. Give some examples of some stories she tells to enhance an aspect of her story.

Part 2. Analyze the story she tells in reference to her story. What does it mean? What is she adding to her narrative?

Part 3. In your mind, how effective is this tool in her story telling?

Essay Topic 3

An entire chapter of the novel is dedicated to discussion of stories and history in general being subjective.

Part 1. What is meant by subjectivity in history?

Part 2. How subjective is history? Are there any true things to be found and proven?

Part 3. How do people best cope with the subjective nature of looking into the past?

(see the answer keys)

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