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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. After the battle, what does Omi do to the narrator?

2. Where does the narrator learn about heterosexual sex?

3. At what age does the narrator write an essay that his later self deems as false?

4. When the narrator begins scowling at other people, he does it to appear what?

5. What position do most of the boys at school volunteer for during the war?

Short Essay Questions

1. What attracts the narrator to the disinterested girl on the bus?

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

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

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

5. Why does the narrator feel he has gone through life fooling not just others, but himself?

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

7. Describe the narrator's fantasy perception of Omi.

8. What is the reaction of his family when the narrator dresses up as the magician, Tenkatsu?

9. Why does the narrator choose not to volunteer as a special cadet?

10. When the narrator writes an essay to analyze his feelings about Reni's "Saint Sebastian," what physical object does the narrator discuss and why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a creative essay, analyzing what aspects of the narrator's life at school might have been different if he had chosen to reveal his true sexual identity.

Essay Topic 2

At an early age, the narrator is interested in other men. However, as a youth he does not attribute these feelings to be sexual.

1) What type of male influence does the narrator have in his life?

2) What masculine memories shape the narrator's life?

3) At an early age, why does the narrator hide this interest in other men?

Essay Topic 3

The motto of the narrator's boarding school is "Be Simple and Manly." Examine how this motto influences the boy and his life at the school.

(see the answer keys)

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