View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does the film begin?
(a) With Maman recounting childhood memories with Jaromil.
(b) With a home recording of Jaromil as a child.
(c) With Jaromil reciting his most famous poem.
(d) With pictures of Jaromil as a child.

2. To Jaromil, what does Xavier represent?
(a) Dream, poetry, and action.
(b) The man he will one day become.
(c) The furthest extent of his dreams.
(d) The horror of poetic ambition lived out.

3. Why is Jaromil jealous of the redhead?
(a) She receives letters from a man he does not know.
(b) He suspects that she is cheating.
(c) Because her doctor sees her body.
(d) She will not tell him where she got the flowers on the table.

4. How does Maman destroy the intimacy between Jaromil and herself?
(a) By telling Jaromil he could find a better girl.
(b) By insulting the redhead's manners.
(c) By looking down on the redhead because of her job.
(d) By suggesting that the redhead sleeps around.

5. Why is it important to Jaromil that he die by fire?
(a) He wants nothing to remain of himself but his poems.
(b) He thinks of himself as a gruesome beacon for the future.
(c) He thinks fire would be the quickest way to die.
(d) A man's death conveys a message about his life.

Short Answer Questions

1. What location is Maman most excited to film in?

2. At Jaromil's sick bed, what words link Maman most closely to him, in her mind?

3. Who was the first man the redheaded girl slept with?

4. Why was Maman initially pleased to think about meeting Jaromil's girlfriend?

5. Why does the girl come to see the man rather than going home?

Short Essay Questions

1. Kundera says that the young person can be so loyally devoted to an idea because he believes in absolutes (Part 5, Chapter 6, pg 220). How does this fit with Jaromil's personality?

2. According to Jaromil, why did he run from the window where he first saw the redheaded girl? How does this move the story forward and reveal Jaromil's personality at the same time?

3. As it is painfully revealed in Part 5, Chapters 4 - 6, why do Maman and Jaromil struggle to live together? What does this say about their relationship as mother and son?

4. After a period of estrangement from Maman, why is Jaromil ready to make peace with her? How do the two of them have very different perceptions of this reconciliation?

5. Jaromil's first revelation about duty is that it is "voluntary and represents human daring and dignity" (Part 5, Chapter 11, pg 263). Given his situation, is this true?

6. How is the girl a different person from when she went into the prison? How is she more like Jaromil had been?

7. Near the end of the book, Xavier betrays Jaromil by leaving him behind. What is the significance of this scene?

8. How does Jaromil feel while he is visiting the janitor's son at the police station? What does this say about his personal growth?

9. "Only a real poet knows how lonely it is inside the mirrored house of poetry" (Part 7, Chapter 1, pg 289). Where else does the reader see mirrors in the story, and how does this sentence relate to Jaromil's life?

10. What happens when Jaromil recites his poems to the audience of police members? How does this compare to the hopes he has had?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,971 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample