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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. Who does Jimmy Greenay save from drowning in chapter 7?

2. What does the Norday pastor pick up "beside the ocean of time" in chapter 5?

3. Who takes over the laird's Hall?

4. Why type of car does Thomas Vass drive?

5. According to author Brown, what does the real self seek?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do the seal people rush back into the sea?

2. According to chapter 5, how did the lairds of old manage to be so wealthy?

3. What does Thorfinn find when he goes, after many long years, back to the loft where he had locked up Mara's seal skin?

4. In chapter 6, what is Elphinstone's role in rounding up the young men for military service?

5. When the workmen are sent to build the aerodrome on Norday Island they are quite unhappy. What cheers them up?

6. What does Thomas Vass think about the arrival of work crews and machinery on Norday Island during the war?

7. Why did Sophie come back to Norday Island in the end?

8. Why are all the doors gone from the island homes when Thorfinn returns to Norday after many years absence?

9. How is the story Mr. Simon is telling the class (early in chapter 5) relevant to the fantasy sequence in which Thorfinn marries a seal wife?

10. Did the peace treaty between Chamberlain and Hitler stop the work on the Norday Aerodrome?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the tight knit community of Norday, each person plays a pre-ordained role which is vital in some way to the health of the entire community. Write an essay describing the role of the laird in Orkney culture, both in time past and in present day (1930s) Norday. What role did the laird play and why is the present laird, although much less powerless, still important? What is his function in terms of the culture? Or does he have one any longer?

Essay Topic 2

The social order of Norday Island is strictly regulated. Thorfinn is cast, from birth, to be a crofter, as his father was before him. Write an essay on why such a system of pre-ordained roles is important for the continuation of any culture. Is Thorfinn simply a rare oddity who can't fulfill his role or is he symbolic of the "modern man" who longs to find himself outside the bounds of tradition and culture? What is the role of tradition in a small interdependent world such as Norday?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay on the idea of a muse, in both ancient Greek literature and here, in chapter 5. How does Sophie function as a muse? Find one example of an ancient Greek muse and compare her to that example.

(see the answer keys)

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