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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. The distinguished female author tells the unnamed narrator that when she was in the first grade, she openly laughed when given the news that which person had died?

2. What does the unnamed narrator describe in his comments at Columbia's School of Arts as the "shadow language to Reagan's official narrative processing of the national tragedy" (114)?

3. Alex cautions the unnamed narrator in Part Three not to write about what kinds of issues?

4. What form of communication does the unnamed narrator use to communicate with Alena during his residency?

5. In what year did the tragedy discussed by the unnamed narrator at the literary event occur?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the unnamed narrator react to holding the Jeff Koons balloon dog sculpture in Part Three and how do Alena and Peter react to his reaction?

2. Discuss an instance when Lerner includes an allusion to one of his own literary works.

3. What is the only low point in the adventure Roberto and the unnamed narrator go on together in Part Three?

4. In what way does the unnamed narrator set up a dichotomy between the art of the "readymade" (133) and the totaled art in Alena's institute?

5. How does the unnamed narrator end up at a party in Part Four?

6. Name three excuses the unnamed narrator uses when people ask to see him during his writers' residency.

7. What aspect of Walt Whitman's strange autobiography Specimen Days disgusts the unnamed narrator and why?

8. Why does Alex caution the unnamed narrator not to write about medical issues and what evidence does she use for her argument?

9. How does the theme of fatherhood enter the narrative in Part Four?

10. What is "totaled art" (130) and how had Alena acquired some of it prior to the novel's opening?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In what way does Lerner go about breaking the text into parts and how do these structural elements help to influence the reader's experience with the text?

Essay Topic 2

Examine Lerner’s use of characterization methods to portray the unnamed narrator within the narrative. What effects do these characterization methods have on the themes and messages inherent in 10:04?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the significance of the final passages included at the end of 10:04.

(see the answer keys)

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