View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Toru say was Nagasawa's greatest virtue?

2. What does Reiko think Naoko is doing while she is showing Toru around the compound?

3. How did Midori's mother die?

4. On what day of the week did Naoko and Toru have their "dates"?

5. Which of these sports does Naoko play with other patients and staff?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Midori's job?

2. How did Storm Trooper affect Toru and Naoko's plans in January 1969?

3. How did Toru and Naoko celebrate her twentieth birthday?

4. How was Toru's dorm room different from most of the others?

5. How did Toru first meet Naoko?

6. Describe Nagasawa.

7. How does Naoko describe her basketball team?

8. Why does Naoko say it would be wrong for her to stay with Toru all the time?

9. How does Naoko describe the conditions in which she writes her letter to Toru?

10. Why didn't Midori like her high school?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the beginning of the novel, Toru says that from Kizuki's death he learned that death is not separate from but part of life. How is this philosophy carried out through the rest of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

In what way does Reiko's story of her own life encompass all of the main themes of Murakami's novel into one tale-within-a-tale? Please be specific.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how the story of the field well at the beginning of the novel represents the future of Toru and Naoko's relationship and why he might have placed it so early in the story.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 967 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample