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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. Who is Mr. Tabata?

2. Who is Keiko?

3. What drink did Miyake share with Junko and Keisuke?

4. Where does Yoshiya's cab take him?

5. Where is Yoshiya when he acknowledges that he no longer cares who his father is?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the story about the UFO that the women tell Komura?

2. How is Miyake able to paint?

3. What does Miyake say when Junko asks her to wake her up?

4. What does the note Komura's wife left behind say?

5. Why did Junko run away from home?

6. Why were Komura's friends puzzled by his marriage?

7. Describe Yoshiya's final moments with Mr. Tabata.

8. Why does Sasaki want Komura to go to Hokkaido?

9. How was Miyake connected to the Kobe earthquake?

10. What does Mr. Tabata say about Yoshiya's mother's pregnancy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write about the theme of emptiness, comparing and contrasting at least two stories from the collection. What does emptiness represent? How does Murakami represent emptiness?

Essay Topic 2

Assess the power of shared experiences in shaping diverse personal narratives. How does the Kobe earthquake unify these stories and the characters in them?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the role of women in after the quake. Examine the text through a feminist lens, trying to find ways in which women advance the stories they are part of. How does Haruki Murakami approach women in these stories? What do you make of these depictions?

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This section contains 569 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample