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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. In Chapter Eleven: Footsteps in the House, who does Deborah say appeared at her home?

2. In Chapter Nine: Night Wandering, who does Deborah say her mother married?

3. In Chapter Seven: The Black and Blueish Darkness, what does Deborah say she thought of her mother's death?

4. In Chapter Ten: X is Where I Am, what does Deborah say Clara said her mother's life was for?

5. In Chapter Ten: X is Where I Am, who does Deborah say she rode with?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter Seven: The Black and Bluish Darkness, what does Deborah say her new life was about? Why does she say this?

2. In Chapter Seven: The Black and Bluish Darkness, what does Deborah say she needed to compose? How does she apply this as a metaphor?

3. In Chapter Eight: The Republic, what does Deborah say her friend told her about her husband? What did Deborah muse about this?

4. In Chapter Eleven: Footsteps in the House, how do footsteps factor into the chapter? What do they symbolically represent?

5. In Chapter Ten: X is Where I Am, who does Deborah say took to driving her around the city and why? Who also rode with them?

6. In Chapter Nine: Night Wandering, what possession from her mother does Deborah say she kept? What touched her most about this?

7. In Chapter Ten: X is Where I Am, what of Deborah's old house items does she say Clara picked up, and what does Clara say about them? What metaphor does she say Clara apply to this?

8. In Chapter Ten: X is Where I Am, why does Deborah say she thought her sense of direction was lost? How does she say this related to her mother?

9. In Chapter Eleven: Footsteps in the House, who does Deborah say appeared in her house? Why does Debrah say she was wary seeing her?

10. In Chapter Seven: The Black and Bluish Darkness, what meeting does Deborah say she went to? How did she feel at the meeting?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the autobiography, Levvy uses many different metaphors to discuss writing: gardener, looker, gazer. What is the portrait she crafts about who a writer is and what they do? How is the role of the writer related to the role of the actor? How is the role of the writer related to the roles of women and men, mothers and daughters, mothers and fathers, as discussed throughout the book?

Essay Topic 2

The debate of minor versus major character is prominent in the Cost of Living as Deborah assigns minor and major characterization both to her characters and the people in her life. Who, in your opinion, is a minor character, and who is a major character in the autobiography? Why is it this way? How has the author arranged characterization of her life to achieve the kind of minorization and majorization, the shifts in the patriarchy's story, that she has wanted to achieve?

Essay Topic 3

Deborah and Clara compare their lives to their mothers' lives in generations past where women stayed at home and had children. Deborah compares herself to other women past, such as Simon de Beauvoir. How do these different women fight for their freedoms within the constraints of their societies? How do they negotiate freedom, and what cost do they pay for the freedoms they have? Choose at least five women in the autobiography to compare and align for this paper.

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