Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream by Joan Didion

"Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream" from the collection...

This quotation

appears in web searches when we look up the title of Didion's essay. If you read between the lines, you locate her thesis/argument/position.

Multiple Choice

What do you think Lucille's father meant by this? Just what did Lucille "see" or find out about the world?

• She learned that she wanted more of what the world offered than she had.

• She learned that she married too soon.

• She learned that her religious faith weakened in the face of temptation

• All of the above.

Multiple Choice

"The dream was teaching the dreamers how to live." In this statement, "The dream" probably refers to...

• Hollywood

• the tabloids

• greed; hope of prosperity

• all of the above

Multiple Choice

Based upon the highlighted passage, we can tell that Didion believes that religious faith ___ in the environment she is writing about.

• flourishes

• stagnates

• diminishes

Multiple Select

Details Didion includes suggest that the Miller marriage was failing because --

• Gordon was unhappy with his job.

• Gordon was having an affair with the receptionist at his dental practice

• The Millers were in debt and feeling the pressure.

• Lucille was having an affair with a lawyer.

Multiple Choice

With which man did Lucille Miller carry on an adulterous affair?

• Robert Denton

• Gordon Miller

• Arthwell Hayton

• Harold Lance

Multiple Select

Which statements about Arthwell Hayton are true?

• He was a fireman when he was dating Lucille.

• He once worked for the district attorney.

• He married within a year of Lucille's trial.

• His wife died suddenly and mysteriously.

• He recorded phone conversations with Lucille.

Multiple Choice

Where was Arthwell Hayton when his wife Elaine died?

• On his boat in Catalina

• At a motel with Lucille Miller

• At a legal conference in San Diego

• With a client in Los Angeles, drawing up a last will and testament.

Multiple Select

Which statements by Arthwell Hayton are unquestionably authentic quotations?

• I'll go to Sherriff Frank Bland and tell him some things I know about you [....]

• I'd marry you tomorrow if I could. I don't love Elaine.

• I would deny that there was any romance on my part whatsoever.

• Many young women become prostitutes just to have enough money to play cards.

Sprengle Recordings

Here we learn that Erwin Sprengle agreed to help the D.A. by recording phone conversations.

Heresay evidence

Lucile claimed in one recording to have hear Arthwell profess his "love" for her and his lack of love for his wife.

Poll

I think Arthwell Hayton was probably guilty of conspiring with Lucille Miller to kill both their spouses.

• guilty

• not guilty

Poll

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-apr-02-tm-dreams14-story.html

Based upon reading just this introduction, do you believe Lucille Miller's daughter, Debbie, believed that Lucille was a murderer?

• guilty

• not guilty