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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. In the Opening, which of the following does the anonymous woman take possession of?

2. How is the first English paragraph in the Opening punctuated?

3. After how many years does the narrator return to Korea?

4. How does the "Opening" end?

5. Which ritual contains nine of each action?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Urania: Astronomy," what does the tongue image symbolize?

2. Discuss the break down in the translation exercise in the opening, particularly beginning with exercise number 5 in the second set of translations. Why does the grammar, tone, and voice shift?

3. Discuss the significance of breath in "Urania: Astronomy."

4. What is Mother's MAH-UHM? Where is it trapped?

5. Discuss the significance of Mary in the "Opening." When does she appear? How is she important?

6. Describe Mother's ideas about what people do just before death.

7. Although the text is written in English, many of the forms and structures Cha uses do not adhere to standards of American English. Some of the translation passages, in particular, seem to have a structure that evinces first-language influence. Do you think the translation passages were originally written in English? Why or why not?

8. What is the significance of the italicized passages in the "Opening"?

9. Where does Mother teach?

10. In "Urania: Astronomy," how do pages and punctuation relate to the focus on breath?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Family plays a significant role in Cha's Dictee. Describe the way family members are linked throughout the work, then address the following questions. How does Cha treat family in this work? What role to family relations play in the narrator's decisions? How does the narrator perceive family? What does Cha's commentary about family appear to be?

Essay Topic 2

Displacement, as it relates to exile and immigrant identity, is a recurring theme throughout this work. Think, for example, about Cha's mother's spirit trapped in Korea or about the narrator's experience in returning to Korea eighteen years after the conflict. How does a sense of displacement inform the identities of the people in the work? Are they marked by it? Are their lives made empty by a sense of yearning? Or do they perceive displacement differently? How?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the significance of the work's nine-part structure. How does Cha's invocation of a Muse in each chapter structure and order the work? What new layer of meaning does it lend the text? Is this choice effective in adding to the overall message of the work? Why or why not?

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