![]() |
Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. According to the quote at the opening of Chapter 1, the girl in Lessing's mother's favorite saying only cared about which of the following?
2. Why did Lessing not like the clothes that her mother had made for her?
3. When did Lessing experiment with drugs?
4. Which of the following does Lessing blame for the distrust that 20th Century people have in their governments?
5. To which of the following does Lessing compare writers?
Short Essay Questions
1. According to Lessing's memory, how did she learn to interact with people around her?
2. Describe Lessing's outlook on the future of the world and human society.
3. How does Lessing describe her childhood vulnerability?
4. What sensation predominated Lessing's childhood?
5. In Chapter 8, how did the girls at the school avoid exams?
6. In Chapter 6, what was Lessing's mother's primary concern about the children?
7. In Chapter 3, what type of child abuse does Lessing describe?
8. Describe the conflict between Lessing's parents regarding the servants.
9. How did Lessing avoid dealing with her conflicts with her mother?
10. Describe the English views of themselves and their relation to other people as Lessing portrays it in this chapter.
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
As Lessing reached early adulthood, she moved in very cosmopolitan circles of society. Where did that cosmopolitanism attribute of hers originate? How did the diversity within her social circles contribute to the political and intellectual positions assumed by members of those groups? In what ways were cosmopolitan circles limited?
Essay Topic 3
Examine Lessing's position on social class and class structures. How did Lessing perceive class? What was her social class at birth? And, how did her family's social status affect her understanding of the term, class? What moments from the autobiography appear to have contributed to her notions of what class and class structure were? Considering events from her childhood and young adult years, what inspired Lessing to join the Communist Party of Southern Rhodesia?
This section contains 795 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |