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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 what is Cecilia buried?

2. What reassuring noise do Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon hear as the girls get ready for the party?

3. How does Cecilia succeed in killing herself?

4. Where is Mr. Lisbon's razor found?

5. Why are the neighborhood children kept from the funeral?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did it happen that Paul Baldino found Cecilia in the bathtub?

2. Why does Mr. Lisbon have to take a tour of several cemeteries?

3. What were Mr. Lisbon's problems with the cemeteries he visited?

4. What major revelation do the boys have upon entering the Lisbon girls' party?

5. Name three events the boys read about in Cecilia's diary.

6. Describe the appearance of Cecilia's diary.

7. How does the Lisbon girls' party differ from other parties the boys have attended?

8. Who was Dominic Palazzano and what was his part in Cecilia's story?

9. What happens in the Baldinos' backyard to arouse neighborhood suspicions?

10. What are Cecilia's two moods toward the end of the diary?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the days leading up to and including the multiple suicides, the boys go through a wide variety of emotions. How do the girls' actions affect them? Are the girls leading them along, or are the boys truly emotionally invested? Do they only feel what the girls intend them to? What is their final conclusion as they stare at Bonnie's body hanging from a rafter?

Essay Topic 2

The Virgin Suicides is written from an unusual first-person plural point of view. How does this point of view affect how the story is told? What characters are part of the "we," and why do you think the author uses this deliberate ambiguity?

Essay Topic 3

Most people, after a tragedy, look for something or someone on whom to put the blame, even if it is the victim(s). This happens several times throughout the course of the novel. Please discuss at least three ways in which a character tries to place blame, including on whom/what, why, and how it affects other characters/the story itself.

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This section contains 775 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample