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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. What does Kelvin think of Berton's account?

2. What does Kelvin look for in the library?

3. Who is in Gibarian's room when Kelvin arrives?

4. What does Kelvin do after he showers and changes?

5. What startles Kelvin as he's getting out of his spacesuit?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Kelvin react emotionally to the two sundresses on the floor?

2. Why aren't Berton's experiences related in the Supplement that Gibarian's note directs Kelvin to?

3. What is Snow's reaction to Kelvin's description of Rheya as a woman he once loved who killed herself?

4. Describe Snow.

5. Describe the change in light between a red-sun day and a blue-sun day on Solaris.

6. Describe the research station as Kelvin first sees it.

7. Describe the view of Solaris that Kelvin first sees from his room.

8. How does Kelvin periodically check to reassure himself that the research station's air circulatory system is working?

9. What is Kelvin wearing when he arrives on the research station?

10. Who was the first human to die in Solaris's ocean?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Kelvin's character and what Kelvin learns from his experiences on Solaris.

1) Does Kelvin grow and change throughout the story? How does his relationship with Rheya change?

2) Does Kelvin gain a deeper understanding of himself, the ocean, or mankind? If so, what understanding does he gain, and how does he gain it?

3) Why does Kelvin decide to stay on Solaris at the end of the novel? What does he hope to find or achieve on Solaris?

Essay Topic 2

Kelvin has complex emotions about the original Rheya, and these emotions are further complicated by the appearance of a new, duplicate Rheya. Kelvin first destroys one Rheya in a panic, and then wants to save the next. What does Kelvin really want? Discuss Kelvin's ambivalent feelings toward Rheya.

1) How do Kelvin's feelings of guilt and love for the first Rheya affect his attitude to the duplicate Rheyas?

2) Is it possible for Kelvin to distinguish his feelings for the Rheya of Solaris from his feelings for and memories of the original Rheya?

3) On a fundamental level, does Kelvin want Rheya to be there, or does he not want her to be there?

Essay Topic 3

What does the novel say about unknowability? Discuss whether the nature of Solaris' ocean is knowable, based on external information, which is the only information available to humans. Discuss whether the nature of another human being is knowable, also based on the external information that is the only information available to others. Is it possible to truly know one's self, even though an individual is privy to his or her own private life? Use examples from the novel, and explain the author's point of view in your analysis.

(see the answer keys)

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