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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. What is Nellie doing in Chapter Seventeen?

2. When did Vanessa become panicked on her honeymoon, as she reveals in Chapter Nineteen?

3. What does Richard force Nellie to wear in Chapter Five even though it makes her uncomfortable?

4. What happens to Vanessa on the subway in Chapter Six?

5. According to Richard in Chapter Fifteen, how did he pay his way through college?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to Vanessa in Chapter Fourteen? Where does she go, and what happens there?

2. What odd occurrence happens to Vanessa while home alone in Chapter Twenty-One?

3. How does Nellie feel about Richard? How do others feel about Richard, as revealed in Chapter One?

4. What problem do Nellie and Sam encounter in Chapter Fifteen? How is this problem solved?

5. According to Charlotte in Chapter Twenty, how did Vanessa start to change after marrying Richard?

6. What request does Richard make of Nellie in Chapter Five? How does she respond, and what does he do in return?

7. What does Nellie see while at the Learning Ladder in Chapter Nine?

8. What wedding gift does Richard give Nellie in Chapter Five? How does Nellie feel about this gift?

9. Who is Daniel Barton? What does the reader learn about him in Chapter Twenty-One?

10. What happens to Nellie while she is waitressing in Chapter Eleven, and how does she react?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Does the end justify the means? How does the novel answer this question? How would Vanessa answer this question? How would Emma? What about other characters, such as Maureen and Richard?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the theme of sight as it pertains to the novel. How does the issue of sight—both literal and figurative—affect the characters in the novel? How does an inability to see clearly propel the novel’s conflicts and themes?

Essay Topic 3

Vanessa experiences great change over the course of the novel. In what ways does she change and in what ways does she remain the same? By the novel’s end, is she better for these changes? What makes you say this? Explain your opinion using examples from the text.

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