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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 language is the word litost?
2. What does Tamina find within herself?
3. What turns off the student about Kristyna when she arrives?
4. Why do the children on Tamina's team begin to win games?
5. What is the man's name who drives off with Tamina in a red sports car?
Short Essay Questions
1. What is the relationship of litost to romantic love in general and specifically in relation to Kristyna and the student?
2. Who does Kristyna meet and what attracts her to this person?
3. What is ironic about the student deceiving Kristyna and attending the Writer's Club meeting?
4. Discuss what graphomania is and how it is used in the context of this chapter.
5. What happens to Kundera's father in Part 6 and what do you think is the significance of Kundera writing about what happens to his father?
6. Who is Kristyna?
7. Where does the student go the day before Kristyna arrives and how does this affect the interaction between Kristyna and the student?
8. What character's life is again addressed in part 6 and how is her life dismissed in a sense?
9. What does Kundera do at the opening to Part VI: The Angels?
10. How is Kundera's father's attempt to understand Beethoven undertaken by Kundera?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
In Part 5, Litost, Kundera introduces us to the concept of litost, which is a Czech word that means a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one's own misery.
1. Explain more fully the concept of litost and give five examples of litost from throughout the book.
2. Though litost is a Czech word, do you think people in other countries experience litost?
3. Do you think litost is necessary to be a great poet and/or philosopher? Why or why not?
4. What do you think litost is called in the English language?
Essay Topic 2
In Part 4, Kundera describes graphomania, which is the obsessive drive to write a book. In order for this condition to exist, the people in the society must have an elevated sense of well-being, an absence of dramatic events in their life and a general isolation between individuals. Discuss the following:
1. Research the term graphomania and explain it fully.
2. Do you think all writers suffer from graphomania?
3. From what compulsion do writers that do not come from countries with the conditions listed above write?
4. Do you think Kundera suffers from graphomania?
Essay Topic 3
In Part 3, "The Angels," Kundera is hired to write astrology columns for a political magazine after he is banned from working by the government. While on the job, he is asked to give the personal astrological reading of a Communist in secret. He gives him the "reading" and the editor of the magazine tells him the powerful man becomes a much nicer, softer man after reading it. Discuss the following:
1. How do you think Kundera's story about astrology fits in with the rest of this novel?
2. Why do you think an astrology reading changes a man? Do you think this is a true anecdote?
3. Do you think Kundera is suggesting that astrology has as much a reason for what happens in the political arena of Czechoslovakia as anything else? Explain.
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This section contains 1,228 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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