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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. The Doctor's Wife reasons that she killed another man in addition to the Leader of the Thugs. Where does she stab him?

2. Where does the Doctor's Wife leave her traveling companions?

3. What important item did the Doctor's Wife bring from the asylum?

4. What ridiculous suggestion does one inmate make after the Thugs steal the food rations?

5. What vegetable does the Gaunt Old Woman eat along with her raw rabbit?

Short Essay Questions

1. What plan does the Doctor's Wife and her band of companions develop after the asylum burns down?

2. Describe the Gaunt Old Woman that lives below the Girl with Dark Glasses' parents' apartment.

3. What arrangement do the Thugs make for payment?

4. What does the Doctor's Wife do when she sees her husband in bed with the Girl with Dark Glasses?

5. In what state do the Doctor and his Wife find the Gaunt Old Woman when they approach her building?

6. What does the unnamed woman do with the lighter she finds among her baggage?

7. How do the Thugs keep track of their earnings?

8. Describe the Thugs' ward.

9. What is the Doctor's principle argument for now trying to stop his wife from going to the Thugs' ward?

10. Describe the old woman with insomnia in Chapter 9.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the use of violence in the novel. Is it seen as a purely evil force, or is its function in the novel more ambiguous? Why is it presented in such graphic detail? Write about each of the following violent episodes:

1. The gang-rape of the first ward women by the Thugs.

2. The murder of the Leader of the Thugs by the Doctor's Wife.

3. The burning down of the asylum.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the function of water in the novel. Write three body paragraphs about three instances in the novel when water plays an active role in the story. Be sure to write about its function both as a narrative device and as a symbol. Sum up Saramago's use of water as a symbol.

Essay Topic 3

The beginning of the novel is marked by a sense of helplessness and shame associated with the inability to see. Explore the unifying embarrassment characters feel in these chapters through the following:

Part 1) How would you describe the character of the First Man? Though we do not know anything of him prior to going blind, does he seem like a man used to asking for help? How does he respond to being helped home by the Thief and stumbling around his apartment?

Part 2) In what state are both the Thief and the Girl with Dark Glasses when they go blind? What - in both of their lives - are they hiding from most of the world which is impossible to hide when they are in this helpless state?

(see the answer keys)

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