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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. Why does the narrator’s replacement say he did not make his presence known when he broke into the house a few nights before?

2. Where does the narrator go at the end of the novel?

3. How does Maggie characterize the experience of being human?

4. What does Ari compare prime numbers to?

5. What does the narrator take comfort in, after Gulliver beats him?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the narrator’s hosts say when he tells them that he needs more time?

2. What gesture does Isobel Martin make at Daniel Russell’s funeral, and how does it affect the narrator?

3. How does the narrator characterize human sex?

4. How does the narrator dispose of the replacement’s body?

5. How does the narrator convince Gulliver that he is telling the truth, when the replacement comes, impersonating Andrew Martin, to kill Gulliver?

6. What is the secret Ari has been keeping for Andrew Martin?

7. What happens when the narrator sets Gulliver up to fight Theo “The Fucking Business” Clarke (181)?

8. What brings the narrator back to Isobel and Gulliver?

9. How does the narrator find out about the presence of the replacement?

10. What contrast does the narrator draw between his home and Earth, after Isobel takes care of him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Who in today’s world holds the view that humans are greedy and violent? What policies do the parties who believe this propose? Who in today’s world believes that humans are flawed but basically good? What policies do the parties who believe this propose? How does The Humans answer this divergence of opinions?

Essay Topic 2

Who is the audience for The Humans? What is the ideal reader for The Humans likely to think about the book’s main topics? How does this book try to affect the reader? What is it trying to teach him or her, or get him or her to do?

Essay Topic 3

What is the meaning of life, according the Vonnadorian narrator of The Humans? How does he arrive at this definition?

(see the answer keys)

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