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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. What does the city seem to generate?

2. Who is Lulu?

3. When does Cy meet Arturas and Claudia Overas?

4. What does Henry find when he climbs the floor to where Sedak is held?

5. Where does Cy go despite his vows never to return after Lulu's death?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are tattooists looked at in Coney Island?

2. What does Cy think about Coney Island and how do you interpret that?

3. How had Grace come to be known by some many so that perhaps Sedak knows of her and judges her?

4. When Grace is out of the hospital and visits Cy, how is her body described and how does Cy respond?

5. How does Cy feel about tattooing?

6. What secret of Claudia's does Grace hold?

7. Why does Cy stay open on rainy days and describe one such day.

8. How does Cy first meet Grace?

9. Describe the first few days that Cy spends at the hospital.

10. What gives a possible hint to a terrible secret in Grace's past?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In part one, "Bloodlights," there is imagery surrounding the color red and blood; the basins of red expectorant; the blood from abortions; the red of the Aurora Borealis lights. Since even in this chapter most readers know that the story is about a tattoo artist, red seems to be a compelling color to wrap around the novel. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Follow the images of blood and the color red that occurs throughout the novel and interpret the individual images and then write an analysis of the symbolic meaning of the color red and blood.

2. Write an essay on the use of symbols in this book. Choose three symbols that seem important and discuss their significance and meaning, using specific examples. How does the use of the symbols enhance your understanding of textual meaning? Or does it? How would the text change if the symbols were not used?

3. Write an essay on the use of symbols in our everyday life. Choose several symbols that seem universal to American culture and discuss their significance and meaning. Why are symbols used? Are they a sort of shorthand to express concepts? Use specific examples.

Essay Topic 2

In Part 2, "The Lady of Many Eyes," there is a description of the baby incubation exhibition. Answer the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. What is the baby incubation exhibition? Could something like that exist except in fiction?

2. How is the baby incubation exhibition related thematically to the rest of the book?

3. Why does Claudia go there week after week? Do you think there would ever come a time when she would stop? When? Why would she stop going there?

4. Why do you think Claudia will allow Grace to lead her away from the baby incubation exhibition? What does this say about the friendship between the two?

5. Would you ever want to go to a baby incubation exhibition? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

In Part 1, "Salvaging Renaissance," Cy thinks that every stage in the passage of life leaves physical mementos and that tattoos can be briefly upsetting, but eventually they become just part of the anatomy. Answer the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. What do the above thoughts mean to you? Do you believe the ideas to hold truth?

2. When Cy thinks that eventually tattoos become just part of the anatomy, do you think he is suggesting that tattoos have little lasting value? If so, how does he value his work?

3. If tattoos record life's moments, why do you think some people go through much pain and expense to have a tattoo removed later?

(see the answer keys)

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