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

2. What are the "gilded caryatids" on the door outside the office (10)?

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

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

5. After dinner, what does Karl begin to suspect caused his uncle to be so reluctant about his visit to the Pollunder home?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Karl discover about Mak on his trip to the Pollunder home?

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

4. What unexpected news does Klara give her father when he and Karl arrive at the Pollunder home, and how does Pollunder react?

5. Describe the building in which Karl finds himself living with his uncle in New York.

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

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

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

9. In what way is Karl's experience in the Pollunder house similar to his experience onboard the ship?

10. Explain how Karl's inability to keep track of his possessions causes complications in "The Stoker."

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

How do the ambiguities in Karl's character support the novel's theme? Write a pro-con essay that explains more than one way to interpret Karl's character. Develop each potential characterization with evidence from the novel. Conclude your essay with an explanation of how these differing interpretations can both be correct and why this ambiguity actually supports the novel's meaning.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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