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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 First Man decide to do with his house at the end of the chapter?

2. Where do women prefer to relieve themselves in the new nomadic existence?

3. Who stops sleeping in the main room of the house after the Man with the Eye Patch's awkward declaration of love?

4. What is the group doing when the Man with the Eye Patch declares his love?

5. How many people are living in the First Man's apartment?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe the state of the outside world since the blindness disease has spread to almost every citizen?

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

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

5. What is the general attitude in the other wards when food stops arriving at the main entrance?

6. What does the Doctor's Wife say to silence the Thugs when they stop by the first ward at the beginning of Chapter 12?

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

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

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

10. What arrangement do the Thugs make for payment?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Jose Saramago's narrative voice is unique in its familiarity with the reader and its presentation of the story in a colloquial, conversational format, one that forgoes many of the standards of traditional novel writing:

Part 1) Discuss the effect of Saramago's frequent use of the first person plural - we - to engage the reader as a confidante of sorts. How does this alter the traditional relationship between the third-person omniscient narrator and the reader?

Part 2) Examine Saramago's frequent usage of hypothetical situations - such as that of the Chronicler walking out among the desperate hordes of the other wards - and allusion to proverbs. What purpose do these devices serve in the narrator's dissection of events?

Part 3) Why do you believe that Saramago uses no quotation marks and generally embeds his dialogue into large paragraphs rather than breaking it up?

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

In the latter passages of the novel, dogs are a constant presence in the filthy, dying streets of the blind city. Largely, they are seen as scavengers, but one - the dog of tears - is a healing gentle soul. What does he symbolize for the Doctor's Wife? To what extent does his arrival herald a turning point in the story? Is the dog otherworldly? Does it act against its nature? Write, in essay form, about the function of the dogs of tears, focusing a paragraph each of the following:

1. Its entrance into the story

2. Its attitude towards death

3. Its interactions with other dogs

(see the answer keys)

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