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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. As a child, the narrator fantasizes that who wants to kill him?

2. What word does the narrator use to describe the occupation of a night-soil man?

3. What does the narrator believe he will do at a younger age than most?

4. What is the narrator doing when he notices Yakumo?

5. Who scolds the narrator for claiming to remember his birth?

Short Essay Questions

1. What attracts the narrator to soldiers as a youth?

2. Why does the narrator feel he has cheated his way through life?

3. After witnessing Omi perform on the gym bars, why does the narrator decide he is no longer in love with him?

4. Why do adults seem concerned at the narrator's insistence that he remembers his birth?

5. How is the grandmother affected when the narrator moves in with his father?

6. Why is the narrator unable to participate in gym class the day that Omi demonstrates how to use the bars?

7. Who was Sebastian of Reni's "Saint Sebastian"?

8. What does the narrator do to appear to be heterosexual in front of his fellow classmates?

9. Why is the narrator fascinated by the idea of death?

10. Why do the narrator's parents keep him from living in the dormitories at school?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The narrator constantly struggles to hide his sexuality from others. In an attempt to appear straight, he agrees to go to a brothel with a classmate.

1) Why does the classmate invite him?

2) Why does the narrator go?

3) What is his experience at the brothel?

Essay Topic 2

Although the narrator fears death, the life he lives is not his own. Write an essay supporting the argument that the narrator lives as though he is already dead.

Essay Topic 3

Upon reaching puberty, the narrator discovers a connection between sex and violence.

1) What was the narrator's relationship with violence prior to puberty?

2) Why does this obsession act itself out in a sexual fashion?

3) How do these desires affect the narrator?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 633 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample