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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 8, Milosz explains that the totalitarian states places such emotional strain on its citizens that what occurs?
(a) They will cease to think for themselves.
(b) The people cannot be responsible for their actions.
(c) The strain itself determines their actions.
(d) They cannot survive long as individuals.

2. Catholic Communists gradually lose everything except what aspect?
(a) Their sense of guilt.
(b) The language of religion.
(c) Their trust in the Virgin Mary.
(d) A basic belief in God.

3. In light of Beta's poetry, how does Milosz treat the modern artist's potential?
(a) He can never know rest or inactivity.
(b) He follows the artistic traditions of former eras.
(c) He works best without established equilibrium.
(d) He is condemned to inactivity.

4. As Milosz witnessed, why was becoming a communist a difficult decision?
(a) A person renounced his sense of personality.
(b) A person became subject to the whims of the bourgeois.
(c) A person gave up all his personal property.
(d) A person renounced his sense of nationalism.

5. While talking to Beker, who is about to be burned at the crematorium because he is too weak to work, what is Beta's attitude?
(a) Agitated and sad.
(b) Calm and detached.
(c) Malicious.
(d) Fearful of his own life.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Beta's writing assert that communism was salvation?

2. As Chapter 8 briefly explains, how does the State regard the propertied class?

3. In Chapter 5, how is Beta characterized?

4. How were Gamma's interactions with people characterized?

5. In the concentration camp, what kind of life does Beta lead?

Short Essay Questions

1. Beta saw life only in terms of society rather than in terms of individual man. How was this his downfall?

2. Rather than blaming these four men for the choices they made, Milosz says they were slaves to history. How is this true?

3. Milosz writes that Delta could not (or would not) distinguish between truth and fable, even in his personal life. Is this the kind of mind the Party would have wanted?

4. Eventually Delta's poems became something of a dream, unreal. How was this inevitable?

5. Nearly six years of Nazi rule had radically changed people's ideas of private property. Did this help or harm the communist idea of common property?

6. In Chapter VIII, Milosz takes on the tone of a communist to describe the evils of the various classes. How is this more powerful than a mere description?

7. How does the party's definition of a reactionary reduce him to a comic level?

8. Milosz opens Chapter VI with a description of Vilna as it existed during his childhood. Is this simply to introduce Gamma or is there another reason?

9. How were Beta and the people of his generation fallen into dark hopelessness?

10. Milosz states that the goals of the workers are far different from those of the state. How is this so?

(see the answer keys)

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