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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 was handed to Commodore Perry?

2. Who was Sam Patch?

3. Who entertained the Commodore and his staff on the tour?

4. What did Commodore Perry want of the Japanese?

5. Where did the Japanese want the Americans to land?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What was the Commodore's first impression of Shimoda.

3. What horrified the Japanese about the Americans at the banquet, but how did the Japanese behave anyway?

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

5. What did the Japanese do after the treaty and what impressed the Americans about the Japanese?

6. How did the two cultures meet face to face and what did the people of the two countries think of the other?

7. Where did Commodore Perry decide to visit?

8. What were some of the impacts of the treaty signing between the Americans and the Japanese?

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

10. What did Perry's arrival precipitate?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many novels, and perhaps a majority, of novels ends on a happy note. Discuss the following:

1. Why do you think many (most?) people want what they perceive as a happy or good ending to a novel? Explain your opinion. Do you? Why or why not? Do you think Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun has a "happy" ending?

2. What are three reasons to read fiction? Discuss each one in light of Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun and whether or not it fulfills all three, two or one of the reasons you mention. Give examples as to why Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun is or is not successful in fulfilling the reasons you discuss.

3. Do you think reading solely for entertainment is as good a reason to read as any other? Why or why not? Can any work of fiction or non-fiction, no matter how poorly written, enlighten, teach, stimulate thought? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

The Tokugawa period in Japan's history is often called The Great Peace, as there were few domestic revolts. Trade prospered and cities grew. Literacy rose, the arts flourished and the people were civilized and the government organized. However, the people had no freedom and lived under a social system of incredibly rigid rules. Discuss the following:

1. Is peace worth the cost, i.e., the repression of new ideas; rigid class system and strict social mores? This is what it took for The Great Peace during the Tokugawa period?

2. Could the peace that Japan experienced have been an illusion? Do you think the lower classes felt peaceful being oppressed?

3. Research a time when another country had a golden age of peace and compare/contrast it to the era of The Great Peace in Japan. How are they alike? How are they different? Did each country have to give up much in order to maintain internal peace?

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)

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