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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 word "Occidental" mean?

2. What does the policeman's repetition of Karl's name make Karl think is true?

3. If the plan to find jobs in Butterford does not work out, what does Robinson suggest they will need to do?

4. What is the significance of the lift boy that passes Karl and Robinson while Karl is sneaking Robinson into the dormitory?

5. What does the head cook tell Karl that he does not "seem the type" for?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Karl end up having a conversation with Therese in his room on his first night at the Occidental Hotel?

2. How does Therese's backstory support the idea that life for immigrants in America is difficult and somewhat dependent on sheer luck?

3. Describe Delamarche and Brunelda's relationship with their neighbors.

4. What do Karl's actions while he is fetching and serving breakfast demonstrate about his character?

5. How does Karl try to improve his position in life while he is at the Occidental Hotel?

6. What other locations is the description of the suburban Ramses apartment building meant to evoke, and what is the similarity between these locations?

7. How do Delamarche and Robinson persuade Karl to accompany them in the morning?

8. What two reasons does Robinson have for coming to see Karl?

9. What does Karl's first sight of Giacomo imply about working conditions in America?

10. When Karl is worried about the vomit in the light shaft being noticed, how do his thoughts foreshadow his eventual fate?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

How do ambiguity and the grotesque work together to create atmosphere and mood in Amerika, and how do these effects contribute to the novel's overall meaning? What patterns of detail and language work together to create a sense of ambiguity? What patterns of detail and language work together to create a sense of the grotesque? In combination, what specific atmosphere and mood do ambiguity and the grotesque create in this novel? How do atmosphere and mood support a theme or themes in Amerika? Be sure to support your claims with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you create a continuum of Amerika's female characters--based on a single criterion of your choosing--and then explain what this ordering of the characters conveys about the role of women in this text. Include, at a minimum, the following characters in your discussion: Therese, Line, Klara, Johanna, Brunelda, and the head cook. Be sure to offer textual evidence to support your assertions.

(see the answer keys)

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