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. In Chapter 2, what is one thing that Lessing says the writer must have in order to begin to write about his/her life?

2. How many bouts of illness did Lessing's family experience?

3. What did Lessing refuse to have on her bed at night?

4. Why did Lessing learn to drive?

5. Which of the following killed one of the chickens and took off with a couple of eggs?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 4, what prompted the Tayler family to move to Africa?

2. After tracing the history of her parents' lives, what does Lessing ponder?

3. How did Lessing become an atheist?

4. Describe the English views of themselves and their relation to other people as Lessing portrays it in this chapter.

5. In Chapter 8, how did the girls at the school avoid exams?

6. In your opinion, why does Lessing trace her lineage in the opening chapter?

7. While their mother was bedridden, what did Lessing and her brother do?

8. What sensation predominated Lessing's childhood?

9. In Chapter 3, what type of child abuse does Lessing describe?

10. How does Lessing describe her childhood vulnerability?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explore and discuss the way in which Lessing deals with mental illness in her autobiography. How did she approach the issue of mental illness? How did she treat the people whom she mentioned within her autobiography who suffered from mental illness? Was she sympathetic? Compassionate? Understanding? What effect did mental illness have on her life? How might that effect, if any, explain or illuminate her position on mental illness?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze the role of education in Lessing's writings. How was Lessing educated? How did her education affect her views on class, politics, and gender? What was Lessing's opinion of education as an institution? How did she support her opinion of education throughout her autobiography?

Essay Topic 3

In a memoir that spans three continents over the course of the author's life, space and place become particularly significant to the story and to Lessing's overall commentary. Examine the way in which she treats various spaces and places in the text. What themes, messages, or ideas does Lessing develop through her treatment of spaces and places? How does she portray those spaces and places? Be sure to consider limited spaces such as the various houses that Lessing recalls, and places as broad as the countries she lived in, to the various cities or communities where she resided.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 865 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample