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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. How did Hesse try to clarify "Siddhartha"?

2. What did Hesse's followers say about his writing after "Steppenwolf"?

3. Which side did Hesse favor in WW I?

4. Where was the house Hesse rented in Ostermundigen located?

5. When did Hesse marry Ninon?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Freedman say that Hesse's writing and his life paralleled each other?

2. In what ways was "Steppenwolf" stylistically new for Hesse?

3. Describe Hesse's travels in 1928-1929.

4. What did the Hesses celebrate at the end of 1945?

5. Describe the novel "Siddhartha."

6. What physical problems was Hesse having at the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s?

7. How did Hesse's marriage to Ruth progress?

8. What effect did the deteriorating state of things in Germany have on Hesse?

9. How did Hesse react to the end of the war in Europe?

10. Describe Hesse's last years and death.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hesse was an apprentice in a bookshop. What was Hesse's apprenticeship like, and how did he serve his apprenticeship as a writer? Where did he learn his trade, and what was the process of acquiring a trade like for him? Was he encouraged and trained, or did he learn by trial and error on his own? How did he pass his apprenticeship as a writer? When was his apprenticeship finished? What "masterpiece" established him as a writer, no longer an apprentice?

Essay Topic 2

Describe Hesse's relationship with women. What differences are there between the women in Hesse's writing and the women in Hesse's life? What did he demand from women, and how did he handle disappointment? What commitments would he make to women, and what would he do to protect his freedom? What was he protecting in himself? What parts of his wives was he protecting himself against?

Essay Topic 3

Describe Hesse's life as a reader. Which authors drew him? Which authors did he return to again and again? What did his favorite books do for him? From whom did Hesse learn to write? Which authors did he write his books to? Whose influences did he struggle to elude? Whose influences did he fail to escape from?

(see the answer keys)

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