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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 Gaunt Old Woman clutch to in her rigor-mortised hand?

2. What does the Doctor's Wife hide in the Gaunt Old Woman's garden before leaving?

3. Who takes control of the Leader's gun?

4. Where does the fire that burns down the asylum begin?

5. What happens for the first time in many days as the first ward is preparing to siege the Thugs?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the Girl with Dark Glasses' decision about remaining with the Doctor's Wife?

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

3. How does the Girl with Dark Glasses respond to the Man with the Eye-Patch's declaration of love?

4. What is the result of the other wards having given the Thugs all their valuables at once?

5. How does the Writer go about writing without his sight?

6. What happens to the Old Woman with insomnia in Chapter 11?

7. How do the Thugs take control of the food rations?

8. What idea does the Doctor's Wife have when it starts raining?

9. Why would the Doctor's Wife's mentioning to the stranger she meets that she is going home reveal that she can see?

10. How does the first ward get its information of the outside world?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Create a character arc for the Doctor. As a figure of esteem in the realm of vision before the epidemic, how does he become a figure of scorn after. Citing examples form his time in quarantine, map out his descent from control to helplessness. In what ways does he occasionally reassert his control over life?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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