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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. Where is Father Huismans when Salim calls on him?

2. What does Indar lecture about when Salim attends his class?

3. How does the President manage the war in the town and surrounding area?

4. What do the villagers do that becomes a threat to the town?

5. How does Father Huismans see himself?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is going through Salim's mind as he travels deeper into the interior?

2. What is happening with the town shortly after Salim arrives?

3. Explain the change in the relationship between Salim and Metty.

4. In what way is Father Huismans somewhat naive?

5. What happens when Father Huismans is not at the lycee when Salim goes to return the book?

6. How does Ferdinand become a burden on Salim?

7. How do Salim and Metty begin to react with Ferdinand?

8. Why does Ferdinand ask the question about African religion?

9. Describe what made Mahesh's wooden spoon venture a failure.

10. What is Raymond's story about the President as a young man?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper expressing your feelings about living in a free society as opposed to the picture of life in A BEND IN THE RIVER. Enumerate the things you enjoy that Salim and the people in the town did not. Use the idea of a thirty-year-old man attending his first party where there were women present as one of your points.

Essay Topic 2

In the novel, visitors to the Domain become increasingly critical of the country and even the expatriates they satirize as becoming Africans themselves. Write an essay on the incorrectness of putting down other people and cultures simply because they are different from your own.

Essay Topic 3

Take the old saying, "It takes one to know one," and compare it to the meeting of Indar and Mahesh and his wife, Shoba. In Chapter 6, Metty recognizes a slave girl when she keeps coming to the store looking for him. Write an essay about how people can spot the faults in others that they have in themselves.

(see the answer keys)

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