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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. On page 80, what significant words does the narrator end Chapter Six with?

2. What does Lowell think Francie is spending too much time doing?

3. What motivates Antonia Framingham to donate money to the NYPD to assist in finding Midas?

4. Why does Nell text Francie and Colette to turn on the Patricia Faith show right away?

5. What does Nell suspect might be causing Winnie to feel overwhelmed?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter Nine, what has changed about the narrator's situation?

2. What do the Prologue and Chapter One make clear was the father's reaction to the narrator's pregnancy, and why?

3. What is revealed about Colette's mother in Chapter Seven?

4. What does Francie mention having seen on Patricia Faith's television show, and how does Nell react?

5. When Colette is at the park in Chapter Eight, what secret desire is she thinking about, and what stops her from trying to obtain it?

6. When Nell is trying on clothes in Chapter Eight, what does she begin to worry might be true about her memory of the man at the bar?

7. What does Colette discover on the mayor's desk, and what does she do with it?

8. When the narrator is pacing inside her house, what memory does she recall, wondering if it was a hallucination?

9. When the police arrive at Nell's to question her, what memory from her past temporarily confuses her?

10. How does Bodhi Mogaro's attorney explain away the evidence against Mogaro?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What message about the importance of perspective is conveyed in The Perfect Mother? How do the novel's multiple narrative points-of-view and perspectives contribute to this message? How do the characterizations of Scarlett, Francie, Colette, and Nell contribute? What role does the non-chronological opening play in reinforcing this message? How is this message related to the ironic counterpoint between the newsletters and the main text? How is it related to the dichotomy between the public's perception of the police and politicians and Molloy's characterization of actual officers and politicians in the text? What other elements of the novel support the novel's thematic concern with perspective-taking? Write an essay that analyzes how several elements of the novel work together to convey a message about perspective. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Given the thematic motifs in The Perfect Mother, why is it so appropriate that the solution to the mystery it contains rests on the reader finally understanding how identities have been obscured by assumptions? By the end of the novel, the reader is aware of having misunderstood the identities of Joshua, Token, and the first-person narrator. The novel's puzzle can only be solved when the reader fully understands each of these identities. What does this have to do with other aspects of the novel, such as the media's misrepresentation of people and the emphasis on perspective created by shifts in narrative point of view and perspective? Write an essay in which you consider how the inference gaps that structure this mystery mimic the novel's thematic concerns. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

What messages about the media does Molloy convey in The Perfect Mother? Is there any irony in the fact that Molloy is making money and building a reputation by writing about kidnapping and murder, just as Faith makes money and builds her reputation by talking about kidnapping and murder on her show, or is there an important distinction between these two kinds of media? How do the high stakes of a murder investigation intensify the outcomes of Faith's journalistic decisions? How does the text's overall depiction of the press coverage of the investigation support the same messages as its depiction of Patricia Faith? How does the text's depiction of press coverage of Nell's relationship with Lachlan Raine also support these messages? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about the messages that The Perfect Mother sends about the media. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

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