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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 film option does Flan think may be a nice alternative for Paul's father's movie?

2. Paul is looking at a statue of what in Central Park when he is mugged?

3. In what city were the Kittredges living when they met Geoffrey?

4. What does the New York Times send contributors of the anecdotes Flan and Ouisa mention at the end of this section?

5. At what time does Ouisa wake up the night after the dinner with Paul?

Short Essay Questions

1. What story do Larkin and Kitty tell in this section?

2. How does Trent Conway assist Paul in his fraud?

3. How does Guare loop time in this first half of the play?

4. How does the Detective respond to the complaints of the Kittredges, Kitty, and Larkin?

5. How does Paul describe his father?

6. What event breaks the relative silence after the Trent Conway revelation?

7. What story do Flan and Ouisa send the New York Times?

8. How does Paul describe the Kittredge children?

9. What is Ouisa's essential fear about the fate of Paul of the play?

10. What does Paul say happened to him in the Park?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Paul is an enigmatic figure, and he only becomes more enigmatic as more is revealed about him. Write an essay, charting the transformation of Paul in three parts:

Part 1) How does Paul begin his transformation from street hustler to society man? What does Trent have to show him to transform him into the young man who appears in the Kittredges' house?

Part 2) How does Paul reinvent his life when he meets Rick and Elizabeth in Central Park? Who does he become, and how does he take on the manor-born customs of a Trent Conway to do it?

Part 3) In what state of existence is Paul the last time Ouisa speaks to him? Does he have a distinct persona at this point? How is he different from the Paul first introduced to the audience at the beginning of the play?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the play, several couples come into contact with Paul and are affected by the experience in profoundly different ways. Write an essay about these different relationships. How do they come into contact with Paul? What does he give them and what does he take away? How are they forced to reassess their ideas of self, love, family?

Part 1) Larkin and Kitty

Part 2) Elizabeth and Rick

Part 3) Ouisa and Flan

Essay Topic 3

Ouisa Kittredge emerges as the protagonist of the play by the end. Write an essay analyzing the plot of Guare's play as a personal journey for Ouisa. What does she discover in her evening with Paul? Why is she so driven to find out his origins and where he is, and how does this drive bring her to promise extravagant things to him over the phone? What is Ouisa's state of mind at the end of the play?

(see the answer keys)

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