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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. By the time dinner is over, how does Karl feel about Klara?

2. What is the name of Karl's riding companion?

3. When Karl tries to use some New York expressions during dinner with Green and Pollunder, what is their response?

4. After dinner, what does Karl realize he finds incomprehensible?

5. What argument does Pollunder give to persuade Jakob to let Karl come for a visit?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is so fascinating to Karl about the desk in his room?

2. What mixed messages does Karl get from Jakob about the visit to Pollunder's country home?

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

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

5. What claims does the stoker make against Schubal?

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

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

8. What bizarre interaction does Karl have with Klara after dinner?

9. What details portray the women in the ship's kitchen as boldly flirtatious?

10. Why is Karl on the ship?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does Amerika convey about the nature of authority? Does authority seem to change from Europe to America? Does its action seem to hinge on circumstances, personality, or both? Is Kafka's use of authority figures in pairs simply a structural device, or does this pairing reveal something about authority itself? Are Kafka's portrayals of authority meant to be funny, tragic, or both? Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about Amerika's stance on authority. Defend your ideas with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 2

The end of Kafka's novel introduces the Theater of Oklahama--but is there a sense in which the entire novel can be appropriately called "theatrical"? If so, what purpose would this serve? In what ways is Karl like a puppet or actor throughout the novel? In what ways are the other characters often like stock characters in a melodrama? In what way are the settings more like stage sets than like realistic settings? Write an essay in which you consider the novel's theatricality and what relationship this has to the novel's ending. Make sure that as you discuss theatricality in relationship to the novel's ending, you take and defend a clear position regarding whether the Theater of Oklahama has something to do with religion and an afterlife. Support your ideas with textual evidence.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about the symbolic value of the sword held by Lady Liberty in the opening paragraph of Amerika. As you formulate your idea about the sword's meaning, consider questions like the following: How does the symbol relate to Kafka's perceptions of America? What historical lens did Kafka view this country through? How does the symbol relate to a long tradition of European art? What impact would the sword have on a reader acquainted with this tradition? How does the idea of America itself contrast with old European traditions like this? Be sure to support your ideas with textual evidence from throughout the novel, and if you use outside sources, credit these in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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