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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. How much money do Boris and the narrator get for the overcoats?

2. How big is Boris' room?

3. How much money is the narrator living on a day?

4. What is the narrator's position at the hotel?

5. Out of how much money does the doorman cheat the narrator?

Short Essay Questions

1. What illusion does the narrator say the success of the restaurant destroys in chapter 21?

2. What does the narrator say are his best and worst days working at the hotel?

3. How does the narrator spend his last days in Paris?

4. Describe the narrator's routine as a plongeur.

5. What decision does Boris make in chapter 7?

6. In what way is a plongeur no better than a slave?

7. Describe Boris and the narrator's interview at the Auberge.

8. Describe the narrator's Saturday nights.

9. Describe the story Valenti tells in chapter 15.

10. How does the narrator describe waiters in chapter 14?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare the characters of Boris and the Jew.

1) In what way are their morals different?

2) What is their relationship to each other?

3) Why does Boris live with the Jew when he finds it so degrading to do so?

Essay Topic 2

Down and Out in Paris and London focuses on poverty.

1) Why was poverty such an issue in 1930's Europe?

2) What problems did Orwell highlight concerning poverty?

3) What problems concerning poverty in Europe could Orwell focus on today?

Essay Topic 3

Compare the two cities of Paris and London.

1) What are the similarities and differences between the two cities?

2) Why were Paris and London seen as such a haven for writers and artists in the 1930's?

3) Was the poverty represented in these two cities unique to London and Paris or representative of all of Europe at that time?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 680 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample