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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 what publication does an article about David appear the next day?

2. On the night after David's day at the clinic, what is the noise that keeps him awake?

3. How does David intend to use his time while he stays at Lucy's?

4. What is one of the things Lucy does to support herself?

5. Who is it that recommends that David be dismissed immediately and that he forfeit all benefits?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do you interpret Melanie's lukewarm acceptance of David Lurie into her flat and into her life?

2. What is David's reaction to Lucy's determination to go back to her farm?

3. At David's hearing, what are the two charges to which he pleads guilty?

4. When Melanie's boyfriend is in the class, the other students are even quieter than they usually are. How might one interpret this silence?

5. After David has resigned, how does Lucy treat the prospect of her father staying with her indefinitely?

6. What does it mean when Ms. Rassool says that they, the committee, may have a duty to protect David from himself?

7. After the attack on Lucy's farm, how does David try to comfort Lucy and what is her reaction?

8. What does Bev's acceptance of David, even after he tells her of his forced resignation, suggest about her?

9. When David is lecturing in Chapter 3, the thoughts he imagines his students having are in italics: "What is he talking about? What does this old man know about love?" What does this awareness reveal about him?

10. When David puts on soft music and offers wine, he describes this as a ritual. What is this a ritual for?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is it that brings about the ethical and moral transformation of David in Chapter 14? Is this transformation the result of his experiences and trauma of the violent attack or is he "replacing" the vitality that Lucy lost?

Essay Topic 2

Soraya wants David out of her life and yet he says he admires her. What does David's admiration of Soraya suggest about him? Is he idolizing her? Does he ignore her treatment of him or does he see something beyond her warnings to never see her again?

Essay Topic 3

Chapter 22. When Lucy tells David the name of the rapist next door, Pollux, she spells it, and answers that it is not an unpronounceable name. She furthers her retort by saying, "And David, can we have some relief from that terrible irony of yours?. . .For years you used it against me when I was a child, to mortify me." How can David's casual, but frequent irony have been mortifying to a child? What is the effect of his using this wit to argue his points?

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