View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name "Lazer" short for in the narrative?

2. Where is the particular kind of lava called "aa" described in “AA”?

3. Where is Ancash from?

4. What does Geryon do when he returns to his hotel in “Distances”?

5. Who calls Geryon on the phone in “Tunnel”?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where in the novel does the climax occur?

2. What is foreshadowed through the discussion of lava in "AA"?

3. What is the central conflict in “Photographs: Like and Not Like”?

4. What does Geryon's photograph represent in “Distances”?

5. What do Geryon and Herakles' grandmother discuss in “Memory Burn”?

6. How have Geryon's circumstances changed in Section 8?

7. What does the flour represent in “The Flashes in Which A Man Possesses Himself”?

8. What does Geryon take from Harrods? Why?

9. What memories come to Geryon in “Tango”?

10. What motifs appear in “Slopes”? How are they introduced?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the story of Stesichoros being blinded by Helen of Troy. What caused Helen to blind Stesichoros? How did Stesichoros reverse his fate? What arguments are made regarding this story in Autobiography of Red?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's allusions to Gertrude Stein and to Homer in Autobiography of Red. How are these authors compared to Stesichoros? In what way have these authors innovated literature and/or poetry? What is said about the power of words in Stein's quote in the beginning of the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and discuss the settings established in Autobiography of Red. Where does Geryon grow up? Where does he meet Herakles as an adult? Where does Geryon travel in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 691 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample