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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. Which of the following appellations does the narrator assign to Lucien’s uncle?

2. Where does the narrator shop for supplies?

3. How many years older than him was Bruno’s older brother?

4. Where was René born?

5. What blood type was the Nazi soldier whose corpse Bruno and his friends looted?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do the old anglers in Guyenne want to go to Oklahoma to fish?

2. Why does the narrator doubt Pascal’s violent intentions?

3. How does the novel describe emotional labor (246)?

4. Why is the narrator permitted to disagree with the intellectuals among the Moulinards?

5. What critique do Denis and Françoise have of the Moulinards?

6. Per Pascal, why does Bruno part from his erstwhile Marxist associates?

7. What does the novel describe a “screen memory” as being (187)?

8. Of what does René’s smell remind the narrator?

9. In the novel, what is an épicerie?

10. Why does the narrator rule out Florence as a potential anti-Pascal actor?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which character is the second most important in the text? How does the work support such an assertion?

Essay Topic 2

Consider Bruno’s emails throughout the novel. What effect do the epistolary interludes have on the narrative? How is the effect achieved?

Essay Topic 3

The narrator makes much of what she does not say to others. What effect does the called-out non-speech have on the narrative? How does that effect emerge?

(see the answer keys)

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