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 does a blind person grab from the Doctor's Wife as she runs from the grocery?

2. What do the Thugs demand in Chapter 9 in exchange for food?

3. What information - beside the fact that she can see - does the Doctor's Wife not volunteer to the man she talks to on the street?

4. Whose lodging does that group decide to skip on their journey?

5. On second glance, what does the Doctor's Wife notice the filthy blind lovers in the hall are doing?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe the Thugs' ward.

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

4. Describe the scene in the Thug's Ward immediately after the Doctor's Wife kills their leader.

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

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

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

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

9. What are the sleeping conditions in quarantine now that all of the beds are full?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Food - and the search for it - becomes a destructive force in the land of the blind, leading to distrust, dehumanization, and sometimes death:

Part 1) Discuss the distribution of food in the first days of quarantine? Before the Thugs arrive, is the process of food distribution fair and straight forward? In what ways are the baser qualities of humankind on display even in these passages?

Part 2) As the Thugs arrive at quarantine, how does the balance of power shift regarding food? Discuss the quarantine is transformed into a Hobbesian nightmare with food as the sole objective?

Part 3) After quarantine, what instances of death occur as a result of the search for food in the city? In the era of white sickness, can humanity be safe as it seeks to subsist.

Essay Topic 3

Jose Saramago writes his parable without any proper names. How does affect he telling of the story and the readers attitude toward the characters. Cite three characters and describe an initial impression of the person based solely on his/her "name." Go on to describe the journey of that character through the story and how he/she does or does not confound expectations.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,028 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample