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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 does Xavier know that there will be no executions the day he hears shots fired?
2. What pleased the artist the most about Jaromil's drawings?
3. According to Kundera, what is "tenderness"?
4. How does the artist show Maman that he is not interested in a relationship with her?
5. Why is the famous poet booed by the audience after he reads a poem?
Short Essay Questions
1. What does Xavier notice most about the woman in the apartment? How does the woman use her eyes?
2. How does Jaromil view the loss of his virginity as a metaphysical event? Is his perception true?
3. When the Communists stage a coup, Jaromil and his uncle fight about the justice of the action. What does this fight reveal about Jaromil's place in the world, particularly in the political realm?
4. When Maman combs Jaromil's hair in front of her guests, how does he react? According to the implications of the text, how does this deepen the rift between them?
5. Given the first three paragraphs of Part 2, what leads the reader to believe that this character is Jaromil? What clues tell the reader that it is someone else?
6. Why is Jaromil thrilled at the thought of catching Magda, the family maid, in the bathtub? What does this say about his sexual development?
7. In Xavier's interactions with the woman in the apartment, what role does water play?
8. After the death of Maman's husband, how does she change? Though Kundera does not make it overt, is this change for the better or for the worse?
9. How does Kundera describe Jaromil's nursing? How does this set the tone for the future relationship between mother and son?
10. As Jaromil reaches adolescence, why is manhood so important to him?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
What element causes Jaromil's death? How is this suited to his life? What does it mean that at the end he looked into his own face, and what horror is added in that moment?
Essay Topic 2
How do the colors of people's clothing give clues about their place in Jaromil's life? What about the colors of clothing in Xavier's life? How are the colors similar or different between the two lives?
Essay Topic 3
Xavier's woman lover looks like an aquatic being (Part 2, Chapter 4, pg 73). What are the ties to Jaromil's perception of Magda? What importance does water have in the perception of beautiful women? What connections are there to ice?
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This section contains 1,791 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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