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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. Who takes control of the Leader's gun?

2. When the Doctor's Wife gets out of bed, what does she choose not to put on?

3. What is stolen from the Chronicler as he types his accounts

4. How does the Thug's guard keep watch?

5. Who in the first ward defends the anonymous person who killed the Leader of the Thugs?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't the Doctor's Wife tell the other inmates that she can see?

2. What happens to the Old Woman with insomnia in Chapter 11?

3. What does the Doctor's Wife say to silence the Thugs when they stop by the first ward at the beginning of Chapter 12?

4. What does the unnamed woman do with the lighter she finds among her baggage?

5. Describe the Gaunt Old Woman that lives below the Girl with Dark Glasses' parents' apartment.

6. Describe the state of the outside world since the blindness disease has spread to almost every citizen?

7. How does the Doctor's Wife meet the Dog of Tears?

8. What is the general attitude in the other wards when food stops arriving at the main entrance?

9. What is the Girl with Dark Glasses' decision about remaining with the Doctor's Wife?

10. What is the Doctor's principle argument for now trying to stop his wife from going to the Thugs' ward?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the devolution of post-industrial society in the novel by choosing one of the following questions to answer in essay form:

1.) The Doctor's Wife is a witness to degradation and dehumanization in the quarantine. What are some examples of the subhuman conditions in the asylum, and what is Saramago saying about the trajectory human nature takes when standards of living are reduced to subsistence levels?

2.) Discuss the relationship of the Thugs to the rest of the quarantine after the Thugs take control of the food supply. How does this feudal relationship involve inmates relying wholeheartedly on those who subjugate them?

3.) The Man with the Eye-Patch that the state of the city after the blindness has swept the country is similar to the origins of man. How does this city resemble pre-agrarian times, citing examples of modern social standards that have vanished?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the function of water in the novel. Write three body paragraphs about three instances in the novel when water plays an active role in the story. Be sure to write about its function both as a narrative device and as a symbol. Sum up Saramago's use of water as a symbol.

Essay Topic 3

Create a character arc for the Doctor. As a figure of esteem in the realm of vision before the epidemic, how does he become a figure of scorn after. Citing examples form his time in quarantine, map out his descent from control to helplessness. In what ways does he occasionally reassert his control over life?

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