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 did some of the Americans collect?

2. What did Hayashi claim to Commodore Perry?

3. What was one thing Perry never did during his visits to Japan?

4. Who returned to negotiate with Commodore Perry?

5. What stuck the Americans about the Japanese?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the Americans impress the Japanese as the Americans came ashore?

2. What gifts most fascinated the Japanese?

3. What made Perry decide to sail to Japan despite the Shogun's death?

4. Where did the Commodore and staff go and what bothered the Commodore about the women there?

5. When did the Shogun die and why was that of concern to Commodore Perry?

6. What Japanese awaited Perry and his staff?

7. What was the first approach the Japanese took towards the United States request for a treaty?

8. How did the behaviors of the Shimoda villagers change and what was the result?

9. What sort of gifts did the Americans give the higher ranked Japanese?

10. Where did Commodore Perry decide to visit?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Dutch were the only regular trading partners of the Japanese and they basically lived like slaves. They submitted to Japanese control in order to gain the enormous profits that came from Japanese trade. Discuss the following:

1. Do you think the Dutch paid too high a price for their "enormous profits"? Explain your answer.

2. How do you think the Japanese thought of the Dutch? Do you think the Japanese respected the Dutch? Why or why not?

3. Many corporations today are accused of making profit the "bottom line." What do you think that means? Do you agree?

4. Would you work for a company whose open or implied philosophy was "profit at any cost"? Why or why not.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss one of the following:

1. Define irony in literary terms. Discuss the irony of the situation of the fact that the Dutch had been treating with the Japanese for many years and lived like slaves; whereas, the Americans were given comparative royal treatment.

2. Define symbolism in literary terms. Discuss the use and meaning of five symbols you choose to analyze from Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun. What do they symbolize? Is the symbolism obvious? Effective? Does the symbolism contribute to the enjoyment of reading?

3. Discuss five literary devices that occur in Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogunand how they are used. Are they effective? Do they add or detract from the reading of the book? Why or why not. Some possible techniques: Allusion, connotation, denouement, dialogue, flashback, figurative language, motif, metaphor, narrator, point of view, simile, mood, and puns.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Thoroughly analyze how the setting informs the plot in Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun.

2. Trace and analyze one major theme of Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun. How is the theme represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

3. Trace and analyze two secondary themes of Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun. How are the themes represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 987 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample