View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Seraphine’s distinctive physical feature?

2. Who is planning to interview Ira?

3. Why does Shawnee wake up in the snow?

4. What does Morris receive from the church?

5. What does Ira do for a living?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Ira’s attitude towards herself?

2. Why is Ira worried when she talks to Seraphine?

3. What causes the fire at Ira’s house?

4. What is John’s attitude towards Ira?

5. Which of Ira’s possessions survives the fire, and why?

6. Why is Bernard suspicious of Ira when she arrives?

7. Why does Ira kiss Morris?

8. Why are Shawnee and her brother fighting?

9. Why is Shawnee angry at her mother?

10. What happened to Bernard’s family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the painted drum ultimately bring Bernard’s community back together? What did its loss symbolize to the people, and what have they gained through its restoration? Why do you think it needed to be returned before the community could fully reconnect?

Essay Topic 2

What role do family and tribalism play in the novel? Consider traditional and nontraditional families such as the Tatros, Faye’s father and his students, and the family Anaquot and Ziigwan’aage built together. What common thread do these families have?

Essay Topic 3

What role does survivor’s guilt play in the novel? How do different characters handle their survivor’s guilt in different ways? Do they ultimately overcome this guilt, or learn to live with it?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 649 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample