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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 other lift boy think will be the likely outcome of Karl's interview with the head waiter?
2. When Karl returns to Delamarche and Robinson after getting food at the hotel, what causes him to decide to separate from them and sleep in the hotel?
3. Regardless of which dress she has on, what other item of clothing does Brunelda usually wear?
4. What does Therese confide in Karl that she asks him to keep secret from the head cook?
5. From context clues, what can logically be inferred about what Brunelda's neighbor is studying?
Short Essay Questions
1. What grudge does the head porter have against Karl, and how does it underscore the ridiculous labor conditions in the hotel?
2. Describe Karl's encounter with the policeman in the Ramses suburbs.
3. What convinces Karl to stay at Brunelda's apartment even after Delamarche assaults him?
4. Explain how Karl ends up losing the photograph of his parents.
5. How does Karl meet Robinson and Delamarche?
6. How do Delamarche and Robinson persuade Karl to accompany them in the morning?
7. What annoys Karl about finding the salami in his trunk in Chapter IV, "The March to Ramses," and what is the salami's eventual fate?
8. When Karl is looking through his trunk, what does he realize about the cap he is wearing?
9. What does Karl's first sight of Giacomo imply about working conditions in America?
10. Why does Karl have a hard time sleeping when he is living at the Occidental Hotel?
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
Some critical approaches to Amerika consider Karl to be a kind of "genderless" character. Does your reading of the text support or challenge this interpretation? Write an essay that takes and defends a position about Karl's gender performance and its meaning. Support your assertions with evidence from the text.
Essay Topic 3
How does Karl's trunk represent his ambivalence about his parents, and what role have they played in creating this ambivalence? Write an essay in which you consider the trunk's provenance, its contents, its role in the novel's plot, and what Karl's treatment of the trunk reveals. Offer textual evidence from throughout the novel in support of your assertions.
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This section contains 1,230 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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