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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 is discussing the play "Rhinoceros" ?

2. What does Michelle and Gabrielle's laughter elicit?

3. What is happening to Mirek's house when he arrives?

4. What is Kundera hired to write for a political magazine?

5. What does Marketa do for the Easter weekend?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does this Kundera say about our collective past?

2. What happens that embarrasses Mama?

3. What does Marketa contemplate doing with Eva near the end of the chapter?

4. What happens when Karel receives a phone call and how is the outcome ironic?

5. Why does Mirek want his old love letters back from Zdena and do you think his goal is possible?

6. What is Zdena response to Mirek's request for his letters and do you think she is being fair to Mirek?

7. What is the difference between how Mama views memory versus how Karel and Marketa do?

8. Why do you think Marketa asks Eva to pretend she is Marketa's cousin?

9. What do Kundera and other students do around 1948 and why? Do you think Kundera is speaking metaphorically or actuality.

10. What situation in Kundera's personal past does he discuss after writing about laughter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Part 6, Kundera remarks that like Beethoven's final acts, his book is a novel on variations. It is a number of voyages leading into and through one theme. Discuss the following:

1. What is the one theme of this novel?

2. Explain the variations of the theme giving specific examples.

3. Do you think there are other themes besides the one Kundera has in mind? What are they? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

In Part 1, the narrator says that Mirek has always been ashamed of Zdena for the simple fact that she is ugly. Much of this book deals with sexual relationships. Discuss one of the following:

1. Do you think Mirek's attitude about a woman's attractiveness is fairly universal? Why or why not? Discuss his attitude and then expand on that.

2. What do you think is the basis of the relationship between Marketa and Karel? Do you think they have a fairly "typical" relationship?

3. Do men base relationships on different criteria than women? Use examples from the book and your personal knowledge.

Essay Topic 3

In Part 4, we learn that shortly after her husband's death, Tamina swallows a bottle of prescription pills and swims out into the sea. Rather than become sleepy and sink, she instead becomes revitalized and finds a treasured silence within her. She comes back to shore and continues to live. Discuss the following:

1. Is Tamina performing an act of forgetting or remembering by her suicide attempt?

2. What do you think is the silence Tamina finds within herself? Do you think it is a positive thing? Why or why not?

3. When Tamina comes back to shore and continues to live, what do you think is the quality of her life? Explain with details from the text.

(see the answer keys)

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