Review Questions: Chapter 17

 

1.      Why does Eppie suspect that the mission house might be a better place for her to live than the apartment she now shares with Rachel and Allison?  Do you think her feelings are justified?  If you were in her position, which place would you prefer to live?  Why?

 

2.      Prior to the start of the church service, Eppie sees “a distinguished-looking couple” enter the church and take their seats in the first pew.  Who, in all likelihood, are these two people?  Why would Eppie feel less self-conscious about standing alone in the church vestibule after watching this couple walk down the aisle and take their seats?

 

3.      Why does Eppie feel closer to the mission residents as she sits among them in church than she did when she first sat among them at the kitchen table in the mission house the previous day?  What is different about the two situations that accounts for this change of feelings on her part?

 

4.      How does Shelley describe the effect that having a baby has had on her life?  What is it about her description that “rings true” for Eppie?  How does Shelley “help” Eppie here?

 

5.      When Eppie looks down at the sleeping infant in his crib at the end of the chapter, we are told that “she saw the child much differently now than she had seen him just a day earlier.”  Why does the child look so much different to her after only one day has passed?  How did Eppie see him the previous day?  How does she see him now?