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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. As seen in Chapter 2, how does the poet of a communist country write?

2. American politics regarded Russia's invasion of Eastern countries with what emotion?

3. The people who practice metaphysical Ketman are often former ____________ .

4. The most difficult thing for a man of the New Faith to conquer, according to Milosz, is his feeling of what?

5. In order to kept his apartment and good political standing, the man practicing aesthetic Ketman is willing to do what?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does aesthetic Ketman flourish, when nothing of the sort is necessary in other countries?

2. Why is it important that man not only be free from something but also for something?

3. What is the difference between Eastern and Western Communists?

4. What is communism's goal for the relationship between the present and the past?

5. Why does man find such joy in the "collective warmth" of which Milosz speaks?

6. The East uses talented artists to their full ability, yet sometimes with mediocre results. Why does this happen?

7. Is Ketman necessary to the citizen of the New Faith? Why?

8. Why, in the end, could Alpha make only one decision about joining the party?

9. From several references to Tito throughout Chapters 2 and 3, what can the reader infer about him? What does the center gain by making an example of him?

10. Several times, Milosz describes bombed Warsaw as the cratered moon. How is this significant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Milosz begins Chapter 4 by saying that the ethical and moral considerations that helped man make decisions in the past have become merely theoretical, inconsequential in the face of changes. What does this say about the changes brought on Eastern Europe from the mid-1930s onward? Given what you know of European history, how were these changes radically different from anything that had come before?

Essay Topic 2

"The moment when bullets pierce the flesh is a moment of amazement for the body. Life and death mingle for a second..." (pg. 184). How accurate is this statement (written and read by people who have never experienced death)? How does this add to the reader's horror of these deaths?

Essay Topic 3

Through Party propaganda and education, communism suppresses man's ability to think for himself. How do the people presented in The Captive Mind either fight or accept this suppression? Consider only the main subjects of the book, including their writing for the underground or for the party.

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