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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. What does the civilian man with the bamboo stick keep looking at and then looking at Karl?

2. What does Karl first notice about Klara when he sees her in the light?

3. Which word best characterizes the stoker's explanation to the captain of his grievances against Schubal?

4. What is the large room that Karl sees over the balustrade?

5. How old is Karl when the narrative opens?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the attendant tells the stoker to get out of the office, what does Karl do?

2. Why is Karl on the ship?

3. Describe Karl's first vision of the Statue of Liberty.

4. What does the letter from Jakob to Karl say?

5. How does Karl's uncle happen to be present on the ship that Karl sailed on?

6. What conclusions has Karl already come to about America when the second chapter opens, and why?

7. Why is Karl so exhausted when the story opens?

8. How does Schubal's manner when he enters the office tend to support the bursar's version of events?

9. What does Karl imagine about his parents when he is in the office with the stoker?

10. What claims does the stoker make against Schubal?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Do some online research to find out about the various titles that Kafka suggested for his novel before, apparently, settling on Der Verschollene. Then, consider what Brod was aiming for by titling the novel Amerika: The Missing Person and what impact it has when publishers shorten the title to simply Amerika. What do these various iterations of the title each imply? Write an essay in which you establish which title--Kafka's or Brod's--is more in keeping with the novel's thematic content. Support your assertions with evidence from the text, and cite any outside sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze how Kafka's humor in Amerika reflects David Foster Wallace's commentary in "Laughing with Kafka." Establish the claims that Foster Wallace makes in his speech. Then, use quoted and paraphrased evidence from Kafka's text to support your analysis of the humor in Amerika and whether it does or does not support Foster Wallace's assertions. Cite evidence from both texts in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

What is the absurd, and how does Kafka employ it in Amerika? What patterns of detail and language help create a sense of absurdity? What impact does this absurdity have on the reader? How does absurdity support a theme or themes in the novel? Be sure to support your claims with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the text.

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