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 does Billy like about Desperate Cove?

2. Where is the Melvilles' home?

3. Whose ancestor resorted to cannibalism?

4. What injuries did Dennis sustain during the storm crisis on The Polar Grinder?

5. What is The Gammy Bird?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author use the symbolism of the iceberg that Quoyle and Wavey see during their walk?

2. What does Chapter 10 show the reader about the relationship of people to the sea?

3. Account for Quoyle's cherished hope that he was, in fact, a changeling.

4. How did the Quoyle house come to be moved to the point where it now stands?

5. In what way is the appearance of the Botterjacht ironic?

6. How does Annie Proulx utilize symbolism in the account of Billy's and Quoyle's journey back from Gaze Island?

7. In what way is the aunt's reaction to the appearance of the distant Quoyle different from her nephew's?

8. What is interesting about the idea of the aunt and Quoyle digging a garden patch?

9. Comment on the significance of the contents of the suitcase Quoyle finds floating in the water.

10. Why do we feel at this point that there is cause to be optimistic about Quoyle's growing friendship with Wavey?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

THE SHIPPING NEWS is characterized by a distinctive style.

1) What do you see as the major elements of Annie Proulx's style?

2) What is the impact of that style?

3) Focus on three salient examples and comment on their effectiveness as well as their relationship to the novel as a whole.

Make this a personal response.

Essay Topic 2

THE SHIPPING NEWS shows us a range of striking characters.

1) What are the usual ways in which writers represent important traits in the characters they create?

2) Choose two characters in THE SHIPPING NEWS and examine the way Annie Proulx reveals them to the reader/responder. What techniques does she employ to introduce and sustain characters? In what ways does she sustain the readers' interest in their lives?

Essay Topic 3

'The ocean is as much a character in this novel as is Quoyle.'

1) What techniques does the author use to give the impression that the sea is a character?

2) Discuss the way of the power of the sea and human responses to it, are represented in THE SHIPPING NEWS. In your answer, focus on two major characters and one secondary character.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,007 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample